25

I am the worst blogger. mainly because I don't think anyone would be interested in reading it and face book is easier to post pictures on. But, I am a big enjoy-er of my friends and family's blogs so I am going to try and change my ways and post more regularly.

Last month, I turned 25. Let's see what I thought life would be like when I first entered college at 17:

By now I was supposed to "have 5 children, married to my High School Crush,  and have a masters in PoliSci."

That was the life plan that did not go as planned. Oh well:)

Instead I am newly married to Evan Fitzpatrick and have friends who have fancy graduate degrees and actually none of my friends have five kids. So I guess it's a mixed bag.

I can say that at 25 I do get to travel and do fun things with a cool guy and that is fun. And here in DC, i get to ride my bike and play tennis and go sailing and stuff like that. And I got 3 skirts on final clearance from Anne Taylor the other day which made me very happy.

So far 25 is great. I still like making plans for the future that may or may not some true. Drives Evan crazy sometimes cause he is in the habit of actually achieving any goal he makes and thinks i will be disappointed. I just like to plan and then get surprised. But I will try to be more realistic:)

So, by 30:

I hope to have some kids
Make a mean chocolate pastry
Have drapes from Pottery Barn (or similar)
Be good at painting
Play at least 5 cool songs on the guitar
Convince Evan to let me paint my walls my favorite color of army green.
Help with/ Attend many weddings (you know who you are!)
Resist all impulses to cut my hair short
Figure out a way to not have a voicemail option on my phone
Be a good sister and friend and wife


We shall see! I am going to work on the Pastries this week, so i will update with details of that adventure!

Since my last post:

Things we have done:

I started a new job at Onsite Health. I am in the finance department at the corporate headquarters. Who knew one day I'd be doing accountant stuff? It's just three blocks away from our apartment which I love.

Evan started his job at BCG. Only two business trips so far, so it's been nice having him around most of the time.

Lots of double dating with Torrey and Justin. Annapolis, Kind street, backyard BBQs etc. Love them.

Trip to Philly with David Trichler to watch the US soccer team play Turkey in their last game before the world cup. They won 2-1. We sat in the crazy fan section with the drums and horns and beer splashing. Very interesting experience.

Trip to PA with BCG for three days. Very fancy hotel, good food. 70's dance party with 200 of Evan's coworkers. Very cool costumes. And bunch of bigwigs in green polyester. Nice.

Lot's of walks in Arlington cemetery. It's nearby so on Sundays we bike over and walk for an hour or two. Beautiful, nice, peaceful place to be.

I started reading Eat, Pray, Love and Evan has read a lot more than me but the last one he finished was Romney's "No Apology"

Evan surprised me with a subscription to "O" magazine. I love him and I love Oprah.

Bike rides into the district. Last one was to the American History Museum. I love DC.

Our pool opened on our rooftop. Lots of laying out and reading up there. I love the sun and have my Thailand tan back.

Lots of great restaurants. My fave dinner place was on U street. I forgot the name but it's right across from Ben's Chili Bowl. Another fav is biking to the corner bakery for breakfast and having the cinnamon rolls. Yummy.

Went to Eastern Market for the first time with Nikki.

Spent a Saturday with my cousin Steph who recently moved out here at the Library of Congress.

We got called to be nursery leaders. Gives church a whole new meaning.

I (recently) started running every day. Have usually hated running and avoided it at all costs, but running on a treadmill in an air conditioned room while listening to Jack Johnson makes it a lot more bearable.

Started a little garden with David in Torrey's backyard.

Got a wonderful assistant at work. He is a BYU sophomore working here for the summer. Nice kid.

We purchased a Gliding Bench (or whatever it's called) for our balcony. Enjoy spending a lot of time on that reading, eating, and watching sunsets.

We are in the last season of West Wing. Life as we know it will soon be over. What will happen next?




Five things I want to do in June:

Go to a Bikram Yoga class together (right now Evan does yoga with me every Sunday, but I think Bikram would be more intense)

Learn to cook one more kind of meal to add to our regular menu.

Get some more plants for our house.

Have Torrey and Justin over.

Play more tennis.

us in San Fransisco

we are really lucky to have a tennis court right by our apartment.

Madeleine Albright

On Monday, Evan and I had the wonderful opportunity to hear from Mrs. Albright. It was fantastic. what happened was that we were thinking that, while we are still on vacation (Evan doesn't start work for another two weeks), we should take advantage of some of the cool things about DC. One of the things we decided to do was try to get into some cool university lectures. Both Evan and I loved attending these at BYU, and I miss university life sometimes- all those great minds surrounding you etc. So we asked our friend David (who is in the Georgetown Masters of Foreign Service program) if he knew of any cool lectures going on and if we could get in to any of them.

Turned out David's boss Madeleine Albright happened to be speaking this week and he got us awesome front row seats. With our names on them and everything. I mention this part because I am always the one NOT sitting in the special seats.

I. LOVED. IT. We metro-ed over to Roslyn on the blue line (which is just one block from us) and then took the free shuttle bus to campus. The event was held here in Gaston Hall. Which was so pretty. I LOVE old buildings. I secretly wish I had grown up as one of the student characters from Dead Poet's Society.


The speech she gave was mostly about her new book titled "Read My Pins" containing her personal antidotes of her experiences as Secretary of State. Really great 20 minute talk. Then a 40 minute question/answer session that was equally enjoyable. I really love her. She makes me want to be more informed about international relations. To that end, we purchased one of her books called "Memo to the President Elect" which I am learning a lot from. I love the way she writes- at least in this book, she is very conversational. I am not the best reader, but this book, while very informative, is easy to follow. Great Day!

I want this whole thing. Except the dogs.

When I saw this picture in some online home design magazine somewhere I fell in LOVE. I want to be them. I don't really want dogs right now. But maybe I will change my mind. I LOVE the movie Marley and Me. Except it made me want an actual dog even less than I already did. But anyway- I love this picture.

Evan's Hair

I love Evan's hair. It's got this cute little wave thing going on. Pictures of him from when he's a little kid are funny because he didn't like his curly hair, so he would like PASTE is down to his head (PASTED DOWN BOWLCUT) to straiten it. He had a fro thing in High School. When we started dating, I started cutting his hair for him. This is something I like to do. In fact I had aspirations for hair school but my dad wouldn't let me. so I just cut my friends' and families' hair. Anyway- I learned to cut hair by going to the salon down the street when we lived in Holland and just watching. With his hair, I cut it on a sharp angle. This allows him to have a wavy longer hair cut instead of a supper curly one or a buzz. Another nice thing about his hair is that, since it's wavy, everything blends pretty well which means he never looks like he has a choppy haircut (unlike me at the moment who has to curl it everyday to hide the haircut-sad). I cut his hair two days before we got married. And took pictures.

Before

During

After

I love both of these things

This past month has been crazy. I:
Celebrated Christmas in NM
Visited Evan Hometown of Philly
Hung out with Rachel While I was there
Got to see BEN FRANKLIN'S grave (I love him)
Went back to DC to sign a lease on an apartment
FOUND an awesome apartment
It's brand new one block away from Pentagon City metro stop
I love it and can't wait to decorate it
Stayed with my favorite girl Nikki
Did Bikrem (steam room) Yoga with her for the week
Fell in love with it and now need Evan to be rich so I can afford it one day
Saw "It's Complicated" with Nikki and loved it
Had lunch at the lovely Nordstrom bistro in Arlington with the lovely Torrey
Got my wedding dress from JCrew that I like lots (my fav color to wear- light gray!)
Got Evan's suit and had it fitted- looks fab
Cut Evan's hair twice
Did a ton of chemical peeling stuff to my face- I think I suffer from a placebo effect
Wedding Planning
Survived Ev being gone in SanFran for a week for Kiva (his work)
Saw my mission President and his lovely Wife (they visited me in NM today)

And then today I found this exciting cover. I love Architectural Digest and I love Jennifer Aniston. I am going to buy it because Evan won't let me read the rag mags anymore and plus I feel more classy having people see me reading this magazine. I will let you know how it goes...