Surprises

I'm not easily surprised. However, yesterday I came down stairs to find my youngest sister lying on the couch. She surprised me by coming to visit. She spent 17 hours flying from Texas to Baltimore just to get here in time for my master's thesis presentation. This was a great gift, and surprised me for the reason it was unexpected.
This semester has changed me though. I feel like the more I learn about myself the more I surprise myself. The process of writing a thesis yielded an investigation into my passions, desires and my soul. I started a job at the US Institute of Peace which is now over. I wrote a thesis which is all but submitted to my graduate school program. I pulled back from activities that I've been dedicated to since I came to D.C. I joined the Capital City Bike Share. I stopped logging on to Facebook everyday. I found a new spiritual community...or at least I'm trying one out. I planned, changed my mind about a lot of those plans. I changed my hair color to brunette, I lost 15 lbs. I made a lot of great outfits. I ate at every new restaurant that opened on H Street. I reflected.
While I did not blog about most of these things, they lead me to where I am today. I'm actually surprised although I saw what was happening every edge of the way. Looking back I'm not sure when the change happened, but it did.
I know next year (2011) will be one of new surprises. In 10 years I married my best friend, went to college twice, got two degrees, had several great jobs that are molding my career, broadened my understanding of the world, met wonderful people, and met myself in surprising ways.

Highs and Lows

For those of you who might be reading this post--today I think my brain is screwed in strait. This thesis writing thing eats me up. I wish I could continue to focus all of my energy on my Thesis and still be a functioning adult. Somehow, at least recently, that has not be possible. I'm hoping in the next few weeks I can learn to balance my life a little more.

That in mind I wanted to see if any of you can help me with my survey, its for journalists who covered the Haiti earthquake mind you: look here to link to the page with more information
or Click here to take survey

In the grips of it

Me in Santa Monica, CA this summer

As I write my thesis, and start a new job, my life appears to be falling into place career wise.
Greg and I have spent a lot of time talking about more graduate school, Ph. D for both us down the line. He sooner than I. We are both realizing we are not 24 anymore. Greg catches up to me on Sept. 24, we'll both be 27. I started trying to work out his birthday details yesterday, but I still have a long way to go. I've lost eight pounds, but the Wii Fit is still not satisfied, and neither is my Weight Watcher's online account.

My position at the US Institute of Peace appears to be working out well so far. I love the women in my department--all very intelligent and hard working; I love the organization's cause. With my thesis I am fully immersed in the coverage of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, learning everything I can about natural disasters, journalistic communities and Haiti. Work at USIP is complimenting this process well as there have been several events on Haiti thus far.

I'm thinking a lot about the future of our family and what our lives will look at in May 2011, as we celebrate our fifth anniversary. This summer was really hard on both of us. I think we both aged a couple of years over the summer as well. Wednesday's ASP/WJC picnic will be hard without Mia to tag along with us.

Painstaking Summer

As many of you know this summer has been very difficult. It has been one full of sadness, as well as one that is very busy.
In May, my grandmother passed away from Alzheimer's. I wrapped up my semester at Georgetown. Greg graduated from Georgetown and his and my families were in town. Mia participated in a cancer drug study, in which her tumor waxed and weened a bit but in the end the drug did not help. The vet told us trying Chemo would most likely kill her anyhow, so we decided to give her a few more months at home with us. We took her on her last road-trip to Birmingham, AL to see my sister-in-law. She loved it, although the trip was very difficult for her. Greg and I also decided to start working out regularly at this point. We purchased the Wii Fit and began weighing ourselves daily and watching more closely what we were eating.
During this time I was working on getting a contract job and also decided to write a Thesis for my final semester at Georgetown. I know what you are thinking--this woman is crazy.
June began with us traveling back to Washington, DC and spending time here with Mia. Taking daily walks and playing ball. We left the final weekend for a trip to Houston to see some dear friends of mine from Baylor and Washington, DC get married. We also got to stay with my ZTA sister Katie and see several friends.
In July, we traveled to LA for another wedding, this was the furthest West I have ever been. We enjoyed the beauty of the mountains and ocean side by side. Then I came home and traveled to New Orleans for the ZTA convention and when I landed there got a call from Greg that his grandfather had passed. I tried my best to enjoy the time I had in New Orleans--and came home a little earlier than expected from my trip.
This was yet another hard thing for us to face, as it had been two years since we had last seen his grandfather. This funeral took us on another trip, to Canada. His kind face and demeanor will be missed as well as his laugh. It was nice to meet a lot of Greg's family (many of which I had never expected to meet). Since we had visited Grand Falls, NB last summer, it was nice to go back.
When we returned Mia was having a difficult time breathing. She was having a hard time sleeping because the lymph-nodes in her throat had grown to the point they were keeping her from breathing. Earlier this week we had to put her to sleep. That was the hardest decision I have had to make as an adult.


Mia was such a part of our lives. She was always happy and loving, and all she wanted to was to play ball. Everyone loved her. She will be missed.
To say this summer has been hard would be an understatement. Grief has overcome me, and my body is barely hanging on right now.

Memories of Meme

For those who do not know I was named for my Grandmother, Mildred Jane Franklin Cates--or Meme as she was known to her friends. My mother loved her mother so much she gave me her name--although it is spelled a different way.Above is a photo of my grandmother and grandfather shortly after they were married, when they visited my grandfather's brother and his wife in Washington, DC. You can see the Washington Monument behind them. Two weeks ago my grandmother died after battling Alzheimer's for more than six years. Those six years have changed my perspective on life immensely. For six years she was there, but missed all of what was going on around her.

I am very thankful to God for the time I got to know her and the love she shared with me. I am very blessed I knew her before her memories began to fade, and she could stand on her own two feet. She taught me to love nature, animals (especially Cocker Spaniels) and people great and small.
Thanks for your love Grandma Meme. Rest in Peace.

Love survives the darkness

This past week I celebrated 5 years since G and I got engaged in Palm Beach, Florida. Our engagement date was March 18, 2005. That is when I received my beautiful engagement ring. I do admit that over the past couple of years I have forgotten about what a surprise it was when G pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him. This weekend that all became real to me again when I almost lost my ring's center diamond.


I was at my friend Samantha's Bachelorette weekend in Delray Beach, Pembroke Pines and Miami Beach, Florida. I was having a great time with her LA friends who now live in NYC and DC and the Florida Palm Beach County contingent. We went to dinner and then out to a club on Saturday night. At one point in the night I was dancing with the group, twisting around and jumping up and down and I realized that the diamond had fallen out.

I was in a club. It was dark and loud and the last thing I wanted was for Samantha to get upset or feel like her party was ruined. I tried really hard not to over-react, but all I could think about was how much I love G and what that ring means.

Pictures swirled through my head of our first kiss, our times in DC when we were first dating, Greg in his Safety patrol T-shirt out at a nice dinner, our trips from Waco to West Palm Beach and driving all-over Florida and Texas together, all the things that lead up to our engagement. At that moment my emotion was as great as when I first received the ring. I remembered the beauty of love and commitment.

Love is not about material possessions, and I know the center diamond could have been replaced, but I love Greg so much and that ring gains more value as our relationship matures beyond the expectations I ever had for it. In those few moments in the club the surprise and joy of that commitment was reborn through a river of emotion.

The other women in the group helped me to figure out when my diamond fell off by piecing together digital photos with time stamps from the evening. One of the women found a bouncer with a flashlight and a broom. After about 35 minutes of looking we located that diamond in a dark room. I am beyond thankful for their help!

The darkness seemed significant too. With all the things G and I have been through together in the past 6 years, knowing each other, joy and love can still be found in the darkness.

Coping with future loss

This week has been tough. I have learned that a lot of loved one's deaths and illnesses I have never dealt with. Sadly what brought this about was when I found out my dog, Mia has cancer.
She does not look like she has cancer except for the ugly sore on her lip.

Mia and I have been friends for her entire life. I met her a few weeks after she was born. She was a sweet rolly polly Cocker Spaniel with her eyes barely opened. She had a family then, her mother Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Macy for short) was licking her face. She was so cute rolling around in the puppy pen with her sisters and brothers. I could not resist.

My grandfather, George Truett Cates was still alive then in the beginning stages of Parkinson's. My grandmother still raised Cocker Spaniels that were shown all over the world and they still lived on their 60 acre farm outside of Austin. Mia was granddad's favorite of the puppies and so he decided after she was about a year old she needed to come home with my family and I. My parents were not entirely excited about having another dog right away (our previous Cocker Spaniel, Poppy, had died the summer before) but they let Mia come home with us.

When I went off to college about two years later. At that point my granddad has passed and my mother and father knew Mia would be spending most of her time with them during the next few years. Mia would come up periodically and stay with what remained of her family at the Ranch with Grandma and I would visit her from school. Since I was in Waco, the Ranch was half way between school and home.

That was even short lived. During my sophomore year of college I went to visit my grandmother and see how she was--at this point she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and the disease was taking a hold of her. She could no longer care for her dogs so sadly my mother and her siblings had to find new homes for Mia's brothers and sisters and the 100 so other dogs that lived on the Ranch.

That might help you understand the events that underskirt my sadness in the past few weeks. Mia in a lot of ways is all I have of those childhood memories of puppies at the Ranch, of my grandmother before the disease made her angry and mean and unable to communicate.

I'm named for my grandmother--as a child we were always really close. Now she does not know who I am or who most people are that were close to her. Mia and I are really close. She is my confidant and friend. I'm her closest one except for when the ball's around.

Mia's been to the vet a lot recently. She has the tumor on her lip and in her lymphnodes, but she seems fine to me. The vet said she will most likely be happy until her body can not take it anymore and then she'll go downhill fast. Then I'll have to make a really difficult situation.

Anyhow I know this is really sad, but it helps me deal with stuff.

Stuck in a Hole

Getting stuck is a hole is not fun. Perhaps if I were Alice falling down a rabbit hole I would have more to say for myself. My recent hole situation just made me feel and look stupid.
Two weeks ago on Thursday I got in my car and drove over to a nearby coffee shop. I was trying to meet one of my mentees, Heather for coffee before running to the grocery to pick a few items up before going to community group. This is when I got stuck in a hole.
With snow melting into ice along the streets from the recent snow storms navigating a parking space became more difficult. I was attempting to parallel park and backed into a hole filled with slush. My poor car could not get out. I was moving her backward and forward to no avail. She just remained stuck.
Somehow I got it in my mind that I could get out of the hole on my own. I then got out and attempted to push my car, which was in neutral out of the hole. People walked by and did not even notice the sticky situation I was in. Sadly this increased my frustrations. Finally I called Heather, and then a friend, Julie also called me and they came to my rescue. After 45 minutes working alone I now had help. We were able to free one of our tires on our own. With the driver's side rear free there were only inches to go to free the other rear tire.
To make matters even better, people began to stop and help us. I guess three young women trying to free a car is more noticeable than one.
The car was finally freed when three men, who wanted to get by me stopped and pushed the passenger side tire out of the hole.
Thank God for friends that are willing to help you when you get stuck in holes.

Hurricanes and Snow Storms

Grocery stores with empty shelves and getting to know your neighbors. That's what hurricanes and snow storms have in common.

During my first Florida hurricane in 2005 (Yaba-daba-Wilma) I learned what its like to be lacking in food on the grocery store shelves for a few weeks. Last week during snowpocolypse 2 and 3 I waited in line for milk for like two hours and there were empty shelves everywhere at the Soviet Safeway down the street. While I was in line at the grocery store I made friends with another woman who has an elderly woman's name as well. I struck up a conversation later that day with a group of girls walking down H Street who had waited for the bus for almost an hour and met all of the people who live on my street while they shoveled 90 percent of the snow off of our street.

I recalled the group of people from my Wellington Condo neighborhood that started a grilling party with steaks from their powerless freezers in the middle of the parking lot. I also remembered how they all worked together to saw apart pine trees that had fallen into roofs and cars and clear the community roads.

These similarities gave me a short sense of deja-vu.

This two hour wait in line reminded me of people waiting in line for gasoline for their generators. Oh the memories of a category five hurricane. Rather than below freezing temperatures there was ridiculous the humidity, and in place of the snow storm drifts there were piles of cars and trees pushed off to the side of parking lots. Snow melts folks!

While there are similarities, I'll be the first to take the milk line for snowpocolyse over Wilma, or Rita or Frances or Jeanne.

Weathering the Second Storm

So we are hanging out with Julie and Jared James during this crazy winter storm. They braved the storm to watch Lost with us last night and now they're stuck here. Too bad. We're having a great time playing Mario and board games, eating a lot and will be playing in the horizontal snow later. Although I say vertical in this video--I meant horizontal.

Snowpocolypse 2010

Washington DC covered in white is much like living in the country. You ask why? Perhaps it has to do with the way people interact. The people on my street were so friendly after the storm. Similar to the way people in Florida helped each other clear debris after the hurricanes. People on the street were shoveling each others cars out of the snow, as well as the streets and sidewalks.

Perhaps its the fact there are very few businesses open? Although I hear Granville Moore's and Sticky Rice had some great specials for those who braved the storm to visit their businesses. Greg and I went to Sticky Rice for brunch on Sunday. The food was absolutely amazing! Our waitress told us she had driven from across town to get to work but that several of her coworkers had walked to get there.

As a graduate student the snow storm gave me time to catch up on some much needed cleaning, rest and reading. It looks like we might get more snow again tomorrow. I'll post some more photos later.

I think I like DC this way.

Technology and Neighbors

What makes life meaningful? Today in my Media and Politics class the professor pointed out that media is mass when people turn to it for meaning in their lives rather than to their community. In essence the media has become a lot of people's artificial community. We are often engaged in communities, like those on Facebook and Twitter that can not be replicated in real time and space.

I'd argue that while media has made our lives a lot easier it was never meant to make us less connected to reality. The reason we created computer technology was to gain time. That time instead has been booked up fuller than our lives were without these new technologies.

So in my new space I've made it my goal to interact with my neighbors. This is a little scary I have to admit. But I'm taking it a little at a time.

Things that go bump

So this moring after getting into the shower I heard a loud crash coming from the guest room. I did not think much of it because in the process of moving our house has managed to acquire several large pillars of boxes.

Upon getting out of the shower, my head wrapped in a towel turban, I discovered a toppled pile had closed the guestroom door from the inside. This is where my problem solving skills went to work. Suddenly I flashed back to the days of Odyssey of the Mind when my team and I (a group of fourth and fifth graders) solved the problems of the world with balsa wood structures.

How was I to get the door open and move the boxes out of the way? In a quick 10 minute trip around the house I discovered a broom and went to work trying to pry open the guest room door. After about 10 minutes the door was open. Much to my dismay I discovered the contents of five boxes stacked against the wall had spilled onto the ground.

This mess consisted of a hodgepodge of Greg's toys from childhood and a bag of small gift items I keep stashed for last minute birthday parties/to brighten someone's day. Looking at this pile I discovered not only how different Greg and I are--but also how funny Luke Sky-walker looks surrounded by lotions and gift soaps.

John Dillinger's Car

So on the way home from church this evening Greg and I saw the FBI reclaiming John Dillinger's Car from the Museum of Crime and Punishment. People were stopped on the street in awe of the infamous criminal's burgundy vehicle.



I'm reminded of our trip to this museum during the summer with our friend Marius Lazau as well as seeing the Dillinger movie, Public Enemies, early in the Fall with Christina D. That museum was very interesting. I've never understand my secret fascination with law enforcement. Where else can one learn about the history of law and the move infamous criminals to stump those who try to enforce those laws.

Dillinger made breaking the law look cool to folks in the depression. Johnny Depp made it look cool in the movie.

Just a little tid-bit. The biggest law I have ever broken was speeding in a school zone on my way to school during my Junior year of high school. I took comedy defensive driving with a bunch of "criminals" with worse offenses than myself.

What's worse than speeding in a school zone you ask? There was a woman in the class who had her license revoked because she switched seats with her daughter in the car (the daughter was one ticket away from loosing her license), and then remembered last minute she had a moving violation she had failed to pay. There was also a truck driver who drove his 18-wheeler into a ditch and ran into an empty (thankfully) school bus. The teacher in the class convinced us to share these stories over Domino's pizza. After two days of 6 to 9 class we were done--and eradicated of all wrong doing.

Other criminals I've encountered were a podiatrist in Wellington Florida who tried to start a medical practice removing bunions out of his home (that did not go over too well with the county health board you can imagine). This was during my first job as a catch-all reporter for the Wellington/Royal Palm Beach Town Crier. Also my encounters corrupt Palm Beach County commissioners including Tony Mazziloti. Those and weekly condensing of police reports from several Palm Beach County town during my time at the Palm Beach Post account for my encounters with law breakers.

Musings from the Atlas District

Throughout high school I kept elaborate scrapbooks with candy wrappers and papers I saved. These made for a hodgepodge of journals chronicling my everyday experiences as an adolescent in small town Texas. Since then I went to college, met the love of my life in Washington, DC, moved to south Florida, started my journalism career, got married, wrote a column, moved to Washington, DC and started graduate school. However, I never been able to reflect during those years in the way I did at Boerne High School and with such artistry as my scrap-booked journals.

So in light of my recent move from Chinatown to the Atlas District of DC, I've decided to join the DC blog-o-sphere and create an online journal where I'll do some catching up by journaling on assorted topics. While it might not be the stuff dreams are made of, I hope to provide intentional insights into life in the US Capital City as well as my new neighborhood--which I'm learning to love.