Home

I had this weekend totally to myself and rather than sit home I decided to take one of the day trips that I used to do when I first moved out here (and what inspired this blog!)

My destination today was Monticello, home of our 3rd President and the man who wrote much of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson. I've been meaning to go for a while and I realized Madison and Monroe both live nearby. It should have taken a little over 2 hours, but I stopped for cheap gas in my old neck of the woods and hit some strange 10 minute snowy storm as I neared the mountain so it took closer to 3. This kept me from seeing the other president's homes, but I also drove through Chancellorsville so I'm going to need to go back out there for that and the vineyards anyway.

I love the Virginia countryside. The hills are so beautiful and it feels like you're going back in time to a forgotten place. I absolutely could live out there someday.

Monticello was great and I recommend visiting. The museum portion was nice, but focused mainly on Monticello as a place rather than Thomas Jefferson as a man, so it wasn't my favorite part of the day. I wasn't dressed appropriately because I didn't realize we'd spend much time outside, so if you go in the winter, be prepared for being out on a mountain.

Thomas Jefferson was a putzy guy and I think my brother would have really enjoyed him. The house took 40 years for Jefferson to build because he kept changing his mind about how things were done. For example, he went to France for 5 years and came back with many new ideas.

When you first walk in you enter a large foyer with high ceilings, Indian gifts and maps on the wall, and a large clock above the front door. This was unusual for the time (having a clock), but to take it a step further, Jefferson had the days of the week up and down the wall and a weight system was attached to the clock and the weights moved each day to indicate what day of the

week it was. The man was so meticulous in his planning that his detailed layouts of the house have made it easy to preserve, so 95% of the building is original. Now, when they need to put in safety measures (such as a fire sprinkler system), they can consult his notes and avoid putting them anywhere that would cause damage. In addition to this, his granddaughter drew detailed pictures of the interior, so the furniture and portraits can be right where Jefferson had them.

I got chills as I stood in his study. Though he donated his personal library to the Library of Congress after the fires of 1812, he continued collecting and some of his books remain in his study today. This country that I love so much is built on words that he penned, risking treason and death when he and 56 others pledged "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" in effort to create a government where all men are created equal and have the freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. To stand in the place where he no doubt studied Locke and the other philosophers that influenced his learning and beliefs....pretty cool.

His bedroom boasted several of his little inventions of which I spoke earlier and Ben would love. He had a lazy Susan type spinning stand for his books so that he could be reading 5 at a time. When he wrote letters (and he wrote many with all of his different interests and positions over the years), he used a machine that would make a copy of everything he wrote (a second pen would mimic his movement), so that he was able to file and save everything he wrote. He had busts and paintings of his colleagues George Washington and John Adams, making me wonder if he understood even then what a great impact these men would have on the course of human events. Basked in the bright afternoon sun that his high ceilings and windows offered, Jefferson also had paintings of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Isaac Newton, the men he said were the 3 greatest who ever lived. He read and wrote in 7 languages because he believed things should be read in the language they were written. On that note, he took 4 of these languages and put together his own version of the Bible in those languages and though he called himself a Christian, he left out the miracles in his version of the Bible because he considered himself to be a man of science...hmmm.

Also worth mentioning is his dining room with a dumbwaiter that only held wine. Once a bottle was empty, they'd send it down to be replaced. Genius.

The final portion of my chilled day was walking down to the family cemetery where Jefferson was buried. He said he wanted to be remembered for 3 things and those things are listed on his grave--

1. The Declaration of Independence

2. Religious freedom in the state of Virginia

3. Founding the University of Virginia.

My drive home was lovely and I had to pull over several times to take pictures of the spectacular sunset.

Finally, the title of this blog is a shout-out to my newest (and apparently late) discovery that I absolutely love and is perfect for my walk into the past this weekend!

Home (Dierks Bentley)

West, on a plane bound west

I see her stretchin' out below

Land, blessed Mother Land

The place where I was born

Scars, yeah she's got her scars

Sometimes it starts to worry me,

'Cause lose, I don't wanna lose

Sight of who we are

From the mountains high

To the wave-crashed coast

There's a way to find

Better days, I know

It's been a long hard ride,

Got a ways to go

But this is still the place

That we all call home

Free, nothin' feels like free,

Though it sometimes means

We don't get along'

Cause same, no we're not the same

But that's what makes us strong

From the mountains high

To the wave-crashed coast

There's a way to find

Better days, I know.

It's been a long hard ride,

Got a ways to go

But this is still the place

That we all call home.

Brave, gotta call it brave

To chase that dream across the sea.

Name, then they signed their names

For something they believed

Red, how the blood ran red

We laid our dead in sacred ground

Just think, wonder what they'd think

If they could see us now

It's been a long hard ride,

Got a ways to go

But this is still the place

That we all call home.

It's been a long hard ride,

And I won't lose hope

This is still the place

That we all call home

Uganda!!

Check out my blog about my recent trip to Uganda! --> http://osifunimungo.blogspot.com/

San Francisco

As of last Monday, I knew very little about the city of San Francisco. I’d heard it was full of liberals and knew it to be the home of the Golden Gate Bridge, street cars, and the infamous island prison of Alcatraz. I underestimated.

From the moment we entered the city, the character of the place was apparent. Each apartment building has ornate detail and the fire stairs add a peculiar uniqueness, making the plainest building oddly beautiful. Our drive to the hotel was naturally a long climb. We’ve all seen the hills of San Francisco in pictures, but photos don’t do them justice. They are steep, they are long, and they come from every direction. A step outside means a workout. Walking down the hill requires caution and the walk back up determination and stamina. I’m not sure my calves were sore from the hills or my massage, but I definitely worked off the food I ate by the hills I walked.

Chinatown. I have now learned that Chinatown in Washington, D.C. is purely a tourist attraction and this is not the case in all Chinatowns. I have yet to travel to NYC, but the Chinatown in San Francisco is exactly what its name says. My first introduction was at about 6:30 a.m. on a walk down to the bay. The streets were quietly filling with people preparing for their work day. Only their work day didn't require a suit or a briefcase. It was cartons of giant fruits, types of fish I could never name, a truck filled to the brim with pigs (no longer living…), and smells that I’d prefer to have never smelled. Later, in the weekend, we visited the shops. If I had had any need for statues of Buddha, cute china cups, or scarves, I would have been in heaven. As it was, the knock off purses were pretty cute and more than one shop had employees pulling us into hidden back rooms to show off their stock of Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade, and others. Sad to say I didn’t find one that I loved enough to purchase, but it was still an experience..

Let’s see…what else. Oh. The people were very friendly and I didn’t see any gay couples. Cliché San Francisco didn’t appear to be real San Francisco. Just FYI.

Alcatraz was awesome. It IS a National Park, so if you have a National Park passport bring it along or be seriously disappointed (I stamped a piece of paper to paste into my book…it would have been my first West Coast stamp. Dangit.) The trip out was gorgeous and it was pretty neat to hear the history of the place.

Of course all it really made me want to do was watch the movies about it, but I may pick up a book as well. Oh AND I really want to do the ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ swim, but I’ve always wanted to do that. There were actually people swimming in the bay when we were down there at about 7 a.m. MAN that had to be icy water. It’s a 1.5 mile trip and despite the fact I swam much more than that in college, I have no illusions of it being an easy feat. Plus, the verdict is still out on the rumor of it being shark infested. That may change my plans. Obviously I’dneed Bekah by my side. Did you know Alcatraz was built as a fort during the Civil War? Crazy. Also, on New Year’s Eve, the inmates could sometimes hear the parties on shore. The guard’s families actually lived on the island—all pretty interesting.

We saw a movie being filmed on the way back to our hotel—some guy in all black was standing on top of this huge black vehicle/machine. So if you see a movie being filmed in San Francisco with that in it let me know. Or just look for the tour bus in the back of that scene.

Sunday morning we got up bright and early to look for the Golden Gate Bridge. The concierge looked at us with skepticism and told us it was over 3 miles and that it was very foggy, but we charged on. From a distance we could barely see Lombard street, winding it's way down the steep hill. We got down to Pier 39 and walked along the water for a while.

Saw the sea lions making a racket and this neat WWII Liberty ship and submarine! I was hoping they were in early for Fleet Week (which is next week, unfortunately), but they are always there. We stopped for some Monopoly pieces at McDonald's and saw the original Ghirardelli chocolate factory. Alcatraz was looking especially creepy and barely visible in the fog. To Diana and Carrie's delight, we got to see a bit of the bridge, but we didn't make it in time to walk across. Next trip!

Sunday afternoon I just spent wandering the city. Union Square has some great shopping that I could never afford (Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany & Co. , etc..), but also the biggest Macy’s and Banana Republic I have ever seen. I was perfectly capable of walking back up to the hotel, but the street car was calling my name. Did you know that to turn it around at the bottom of the hill they actually manually turn the wheel in the ground that it stops on? (See picture). A bit of classic charm in a very urban setting. I lucked out and got to ride standing up hanging out like in the movies.

All I needed was someone to wave to as we pulled away…or something romantic like that. It was a good end to my weekend. I considered trying to squeeze in something else, but I was asleep by 7:30.

There isn’t really a better way to see San Francisco than from the comfort of a marvelous hotel with a great view in the heart of the city, but either way, I can see why people leave their hearts in this place. Didn’t work that way for me, but I just love that city!

It's the real thing.

If you know me, you know I love Coke. I love the taste, I love the antiques, I love the classic feeling, and I love the songs and the commercials. I gotta say though, it nearly just totally let me down. I’m listening away to Disney on Pandora quite content with today’s music selection until an instrumental Jungle Book piece came on and I was (naturally) forced to skip it and listen to an ad. To my delight, it was a Coke commercial. Old school and starting with something about being heart broken. I changed windows to check it out and saw the above option to 'cheer up a friend who is feeling low' and needs a "frothy Coke." I’m that person today, so I clicked their "Happy Playlist." Aaand was blasted with Michael Buble. HELLO? What ‘heartsick person who is feeling low’ wants to hear anything similar to Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, or Michael Buble? I took my headphones off like they were poisonous, chuckling at its serious failure to pick me up. A few moments later I decided to give it another chance and skipped ahead only to have my faith restored:

Don’t Worry, Be Happy—a classic and family favorite. Things are looking up.
Next? Dynomite—a personal favorite.
Pocketful of Sunshine—love Natasha and saw that one live.
Celebration…okay, a bit old school, but not worth a commercial, so I won’t skip. Yep, it’s making me dance a little bit in my cubicle.
I Gotta Feeling…not sure this is quite up to par, but it has some good memories and I won’t complain. The next one will have to be extra good though.
Love Story. Fail. Skip.
Rhythm of Love. Off it goes. Can’t handle that.

All right. Well, pretty good work, Coke. Next time just alter your advertising or target audience. I still had a fountain Coke for lunch, so I guess you were doing something right.

Tune back sometime soon for additional Coke plugs :)

So, this is a tropical storm?

Alexandria, Virginia-- Not sure what this storm will bring, but I'll give you my first hand report from the Nation's Capitol! While I am taking this storm seriously and everything on here is true, take it with a grain of salt ;)

Sunday, August 28

10:45 am: Lots more trees down than I expected on the GW parkway. Pretty big ones had fallen, but none blocked the road or me from getting to church!

9:45 am: We didn't even notice, but apparently our house did suffer a bit from Irene...probably partially because of the earthquake, I'd imagine. Our landlord heard a thud around two and this section of the stairs had fallen.

9:20 am: I think this is my last update on the storm. Not sure there will be much else to tell. I'm still glad to have been prepared, better safe than sorry. If there hadn't been major warnings in the area and there HAD been great damage, half the recovery would have been playing the blame game and that doesn't help a thing.

I feel bad that the lack of visual damage in my area was kind of a let down. I know there are people up and down the coast who have suffered great loss in the past 2 days and my heart goes out to them.

8:30 am: Amanda and I decided to go out and check things out. To be honest, it looks nothing worse than a normal thunderstorm. I was actually scared at a point last night, but the damage is next to nothing in Old Town. Smaller branches down and large puddles, but no flooding or trees down.

8:11 am: Okay...maybe it isn't that much calmer. I think we need to go investigate.

8:00 am: Waking thought: There was a storm last night? Just kidding, but it is much calmer today. Still very windy, but the rain has stopped. It may also be a little less menacing since the streetlights aren't making the trees reflect on my wall.

3:05 am: Still the strongest winds we've felt. Making it pretty hard to sleep!

12:30 am: Well, I was actually sleeping quite soundly until Ben texted and called and then I was jolted fully awake by strong wind. First time I considered moving to my floor to be away from the window. This is definitely the strongest wind yet, even though the radar is no longer showing us at the center. It has actually sounded almost like rumbling thunder, but it is really just the wind. Lightning now for the first time too.

Saturday, August 27

11:04 pm: Calling it a day and hoping to sleep tight.

9:57 pm: Amanda and I decided to go check on the cars to see if any big branches are down. We were feeling adventurous until we stepped out our front door. I think the umbrella against the wind made it feel a lot stronger because clearly the wind won. Amanda thought she was being blown away and walking West back toward the house was a wet one so we ducked close to the ground as we walked. We wanted to walk to check out King Street, but only got about 50 yards in that direction. The wind was so strong we ended up hiding in a stairwell until the biggest gust passed. I was just waiting to get beamed. While I blame part of it just on not being able to control the oversized umbrella, it still scared us enough so that we probably won't be going back outside this evening.

9:21 pm: No further mention of Georgetown...not sure that was a correct report. Waiting for the power to go out. Ugh.

9:05 pm: About to hit DC. Tornado Warning in Georgetown. I will not be leaving this evening...unless it is to check on the car. Higher winds expected. Ahhh....

8:36 pm: I keep hearing noises in my room. Pretty sure it's more brick/sand falling from the walls like during the earthquake. Great.

8:34 pm: Window on West side of the house still wide open and giving us great sound effects, but no rain. Wind starting to make me a tad nervous.

8:26 pm: Supposedly it is supposed to get worse tonight and 100,000 in DC area are without power. Towel by my window is soaked, but so far so good. Amanda and I are debating trekking out. Can we see anything in the dark? Movie at Lauren's? Local pub? Staying put for now.

8:07 pm: Hear brakes slam and some choice words from the street. Jump up to look out my window to only see a car stopped. False excitement.

6:09 pm: Listen to the Oldie "Come on, Irene" in honor of Irene blowing and learn that the song is actually "Come on, Eileen"...change the title of this blog. (Google it right now though and there are plenty of people who were mistaken!)

5:17 pm: First drips of water come in my window. I feel like the movie Signs. It’s here.

5:10 pm: Observe trees blowing in circular motions.

4:48 pm: First heavy rain.

3:15 pm: Grabbed our umbrellas and go for a walk. Got on a "news reel" and probably in the background of several others as there were trucks everywhere. Observed lots of sandbags and not much happening on the Potomac.

3:05 pm: As we prepare to find the "eye" of the storm I try to rewrite the lyrics to "Eye of the Tiger". Fail.

3:00 pm: Put on my rain boots.

2:00 pm: Rain starts to pick up, but windows are still open and wind isn’t ready to blow us away. Preparing to go down to check out the waterfront. Amanda declares it is the first time ever she wishes she had rain boots. (Radar: 2:16 pm)

12:00 pm: Still drizzling and still contemplating the couch.

11:00 am: Drizzling. Should we get the couch? Charging my camera. Question of the day: Where to park our cars?

10:00 am: Cloudy. We remember we’re supposed to pick up our couch today.

8:00 am: Decide to go get gas and pick up some batteries from Target. Hear it is supposed to start storming here at 10. Tropical Weather Storm watch? What the heck am I doing here?

12:15 am: Roommate tells me it has changed from “orange to red” on the map, so it’s getting worse. We discuss moving our cars and inspect the walls as she worries we’ll lose the roof. She is the only one who experienced the earthquake from our home and knows how old it is, especially during natural disasters.

Friday, August 26

8:45 pm: Friend calls offering to pick up water because it is out at several stores.

5:15 pm: Amanda finally seems a bit concerned.

5:05 pm: Dad tells me to keep him posted and he's kind of excited-wishes he was here with me.

3:30 pm: At this memory, I decided I’d rather be prepared for Irene then not. I drove down to Giant where I was unpleasantly surprised at the crowds. I figured I would miss them by going before 5:00. Wrong. There were no carts left so I picked up one of the last big things of bottled water and stood in line. I was charged a clearly inflated rate of $11.59 for that water and carried it out to my car before going back in for some food items. As I walked around the store and picked up apples, wine, crackers, and bread, I was thankful for the polite attitudes people were keeping. Walking back out to my car, however, I had visions of New Orleans after Katrina and I put my water in my trunk so people couldn’t see it if things got nasty. How terrible is that? I hate that my mind would even go there, but you never can tell in our fallen world.

3:00 pm: As I discussed the hurricane with my roommate, I recalled 2010 when I had first moved to Virginia. For several days, I watched my neighbors flock to the stores and buy out necessities such as Milk and shovels. I laughed and bought cookie supplies and wine. Fast forward 24 hours and we had 17 inches of snow and it stayed on our street for 3 days, fell again, and it was a full 6 work days before I could get into DC.

Morning: Kiki’s dad: You better just bail. Drive 100 miles west.

8:01 am: Text from dad: Will you maybe have to evacuate?

7:15 am: Text to Amanda from her dad: You need to go stay with your aunt in the mountains.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, "for our God is a consuming fire!" (Hebrews 12:28 & 29)

Since I'm updating about the hurricane I feel like I should share about the earthquake that took place earlier this week!

August 23, 2011--

I was sitting at my desk on the 6th floor of our building, about 5 blocks from the White House and started to feel some rumbling. I stand up to look outside, thinking a big truck must be going by. As it continues and I don't see anything strange outside the rumbling/vibrating turns into our building swaying from side to side. My reaction is to stay rooted in my spot, staring out the window, as I wonder if our building is going to collapse. The wiser people in my office were calling us away from the windows and we all stood there for a moment. We quickly see that people are leaving the building so we grabbed our phones and purses and followed.

When we got down to the street, we realized that it was not just our building. I immediately contacted a couple of people in the case that cell service wouldn't be around long and I didn't want them to worry. At this point we didn't know if it was a terrorist attack or earthquake and I was still waiting for something else to take place. People were saying it was like 9/11, my biggest thought was that it was the metro. Others mentioned a plane crash. For about 8 minutes no one had any idea what was going on. Cell reception was spotty, but from within our group we heard from the Capitol, Alexandria, and North Carolina and knew that at it couldn't be an attack, thank God.

We stood out there for some time and really didn't know what to do from there. Thankfully it wasn't chaotic, but an excited uncertainty filled the air. Can they predict another one coming? Can we go back in the building? Should we get away from the buildings? After a while we went inside to close up our computers and leave for the day. I was still pretty shaky by the time I made it to my car for the traffic jammed 8 mile drive home. I envisioned buildings falling or the 14th Street Bridge collapsing with a big aftershock. I really was quite shaken with the whole thing.

At home my frames were off the wall, a shelf had fallen, and in the intensity of the day I didn't even notice until Wednesday that there was a layer of sand/rock around the sides of my room from our ceilings. I live in a pretty old building so apparently it was pretty noisy when it all took place!

The events of this week are just a powerful reminder of what little control we have in this world. God can move mountains and oceans, people and hearts, and it can be so hard to trust in His plan. I sit quietly, clinging to His promises and amazed by His grace.

Interesting mentions of earthquakes in the Bible!

Take me out to the ball game

It is no secret that I love baseball. Whether on the backyard patio listening to the crack of the bat over the radio waves or at the ballpark, it generates a certain feeling that only baseball can. Working in the garage with a cold lemonade nearby being serenaded by the announcer’s commentary on a hot summer day. A father and a son walking to the park, the son with a hat too big for his face and a baseball mitt dangling by his side. Men standing on the street corners pawning off tickets, hats, or programs. The crowds flowing into the stadium with a sense of anticipation. The sights. The sounds. The smells. It’s something special. 162 games a year, yet every game is exciting. Game 1, game 100, game 162. They will all be attended with enthusiasm. A blow-out turns into a late game rally with a walk-off run. A manager gets ejected. A leap into the stands. A wild pitch. A grand slam. The 7th Inning Stretch. A bobblehead. Doesn’t matter what game it is, but big things happen.

People come together from all over into this one place and bond. On a typical night you wouldn’t talk to the man standing next to you on public transportation, but on your way to a baseball game you’re the best of pals. Sharing stories from the past and discussing, to the best of your ability, the obviously high chance of winning tonight’s game.

Robert Frost once said, “I never feel more at home in America than when I’m at a baseball game.” I’ve always loved this quote and only recently did I discover it’s origin. In one of the last possible places I would have looked, I found it in a Sports Illustrated article from 1956 about the American All-Star game. It’s worth the read.

"It has been a day of prowess in spite of its being a little on the picnic side and possibly not as desperately fought as it might be in a World Series. Prowess, prowess, in about equal strength for both sides. Each team made 11 hits, two home runs and not a single error. The day was perfect, the scene perfect, the play perfect. Prowess of course comes first, the ability to perform with success in games, in the arts and, come right down to it, in battle. The nearest of kin to the artists in college where we all become bachelors of arts are their fellow performers in baseball, football and tennis. That's why I am so particular college athletics should be kept from corruption. They are close to the soul of culture. At any rate the Greeks thought so. Justice is a close second to prowess. When displayed toward each other by antagonists in war and peace, it is known as the nobility of noble natures. And I mustn't forget courage, for there is neither prowess nor justice without it. My fourth, if it is important enough in comparison to be worth bringing in, is knowledge, the mere information we can't get too much of and can't ever get enough of, we complain, before going into action. As I say, I never feel more at home in America than at a ball game be it in park or in sandlot. Beyond this I know not. And dare not.”

Okay, but enough already. Painting a vivid picture of one of my favorite hobbies was not the point of today’s blog. Rather, I wanted to tell about a D.C. tradition that I recently attended. The Congressional Baseball Game. For over 100 years (with several breaks in between for war and other American hardships), Congressmen and Senators have convened for an evening of baseball. This year, the game was at Nationals Park and it certainly far surpassed my expectations.

The game was like a squished peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The PB was the politics. The jelly was the baseball. They oozed together into a somewhat unexpected, yet enjoyable evening treat. Not knowing what to anticipate, I wore a College Republicans shirt and my Twins hat. While comfortable with my decision, leave it to D.C. to show up in business attire to a 90 degree baseball game. Most people were in work clothes or campaign shirts for their congressman or boss. Surprisingly, the Nats pre-game happy hour was still open outside the stadium, but we still made it in before the game. The next surprise was seeing them down on the field, it could have been the Nats hanging out in their dugout and I wouldn’t have known the difference. They were each in full uniform (of their home team) and they stood around looking pretty focused on the task at hand.

As with most baseball games, the crowd came together for a moment of American pride as the Anthem was sung and then we went our separate ways. Blue or Red. As I saw the donkey or the elephant show up next to each player’s name as they stepped up to the plate, it dawned on me. This wasn’t just a baseball game, it brought in another one of my hobbies and made it personal when the Democrats were cheering in victory. Oh how I wanted to win. Unfortunately their cheering that night far out-weighed ours largely due to their freshman congressman who pitched in college ball. No chance of hitting that.

We lost the game, but I had the opportunity to meet my MN Congressman, Eric Paulsen, and share a Minnesota-nice moment. I was happy to hear they had held many practices and to observe the players taking the game seriously. Some, like Paulsen, had their whole staff and their families there to watch. It wasn’t for show or even for their constituents, it was just good old American fun. It was nice to see that with battles raging all around us in Congress and out, everyone can take a break long enough to enjoy a little baseball.