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.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
In the grips of it
Me in Santa Monica, CA this summer
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.
Friday, July 23, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
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.
Friday, March 12, 2010
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.
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.
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