Enjablog

Congrats to Ian’s bro and his bride!! Pictures to follow, hopefully…

So, a few weeks back, I was at my parents’ house eating cake and brownies when the doorbell rang. There were already a dozen people in the house and the person at the door was obviously not related to us since they rang the doorbell. Similar to the phone ringing, oftentimes my family will respond to the doorbell with yells of “Door!” while continuing to sit and do whatever we were doing before the bell rang.

My uncle ended up being the first one curious enough to answer the door. Before the other person had a chance to say anything or even introduce himself, my uncle greeted him, “Congressman Davis! How are you?” He stayed long enough to hear the polite response before walking away giving an explanation of, “I don’t live here.”

(Yes, these are the kinds of celebrity sightings my family gets riled up over.)

So, my mom goes to the door, since she does live there, and starts talking to him. Meanwhile, the rest of my family and extended family are milling about asking who was at the door and why he was there.

At the time, I was carrying around a clipboard with a half-written letter to Sonny. We’ve been writing group/family letters to him basically live-blogging our Saturday lunches. And what better way to live-blog than to have a guest blogger, right?

I approached the door… After my mom’s attempts to invite the Congressman in and have some cake were politely declined, I caught his eye; he saw my clipboard and started to look a little shifty-eyed. I explained that my brother is in training and about to get sent to Iraq and we were writing him a letter. Would he like to add something to our letter for that week?

Well, that explained the clipboard, but he still had no interest in blindly writing and signing something some girl just hands to him. So, he pulls out his wallet and pulls out one of his cards to write a note to Sonny, which we can mail with our letter. Seemed like a reasonable enough compromise.

As he was writing, he made some polite conversation with me. He asked if I was still in school. There was the initial look of surprise when I said no, then the next surprised look when I said I graduated about 5 years ago, then yet another when I said I graduated from Virginia Tech (not high school, as I can only assume he was expecting) and am now working as an engineer for a defense contractor.

Anyway, the whole reason he was there was to campaign for his wife, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, who is running for re-election for Senate. Now, I didn’t realize they were married. The last time I had been in the area when she was campaigning, she woke me up from a nap and didn’t have Davis tacked on to the end of her name. I had no idea who she was at the time either, not that it would have mattered in my groggy state. In any case, this time she sent her husband to come around my parents’ neighborhood and, as always, it was an exciting time at my parents’ house.

My former adviser is in town teaching a week-long course in DC, so we had an impromptu alum reunion tonight. JL3 and I sent some emails around and a bunch of her coworkers came out. A bunch of people I’ve vaguely been keeping in contact with over the past couple years made appearances. A little over a dozen people over the course of the evening.

Lots of fun and got some gossip that my prof wasn’t allowed to tell when I was in school. ;) I, of course, gave him some gossip back, which he shouldn’t have known when I was still a student. And stories from the other attendees as well. It was an interesting evening of reminiscing.

Oh, and Sonny — Ben says hi!

Oh yeah, and I forgot two more. One of Ian’s cousins had a baby this spring and the other is due this fall.

Baby showers… what fun!

What is going on??

So far this year, my sis-in-law finished making a baby, my boss’s wife just finished one, and VHMPrincess had her third.

I just found out that 3 of my former coworkers are pregnant. This is especially interesting because I don’t work with that many women.

The first one, who has probably already had her baby by now left my current company about a year ago and sent an email a few months ago announcing her wedding and expected child.

Second, was TLD’s workiversary buddy. She quit, worked somewhere else for a while, got married, bought a house, sold her house and moved south, moved back, and got pregnant. All within about a year and a half.

Third, a former coworker who was more opposed to children than I am and smokes like a chimney, announced she’s due in January. This is terrifying to me. I’ve been warned numerous times about the whole biological clock thing, which I’m not looking forward to. But I didn’t realize how powerful it was until I heard about this.

Also add to this list Ian’s boss’s wife and a coworker’s wife. Pretty soon, no one will be left to come out to happy hours with us. :(

As Ian and I were heading out on the town tonight, around 9:30pm, we were met in the lobby with a couple screaming at each other. They walked out of the building at the same time as us and we tried our best not to make eye-contact. But as we walked down the loop in front of our building, they were met by another man and two children (girls, about 3 and 9). The profanity and yelling increased. There was shoving between the two men.

Ian and I headed toward my car as they crossed the street to a moving truck. We turned to keep an eye on the scene and the angry man was back to yelling at the woman. He had backed her up against the truck and it sounded like he spit on her… and she spit back at him.

At this point, still standing across the street from this ruckus, we decide we should probably call the police before leaving the scene. Ian calls, gives the location, describes the situation, etc. And as we’re standing there, describing the people and their vehicles, the angry man gets into the moving truck and drives away… with the woman and second man chasing after, trailed by the older child trying to carry the younger one and keep up. They get about half a block up the street before turning around to get back into their car.

Woman and children stay in the car while the man goes into the building. An unmarked police car arrives with 3 officers inside. They get out and try to talk to the woman in the car. A minute later a second, marked, car arrives, followed shortly by a third… and fourth.

And then, um, Ian and I left to watch The Bourne Ultimatum, which was so much cooler than domestic violence.

About halfway through my run this evening, I hear shouting coming from the men’s room:

Woman: “Give me my phone!”

Man: *response muffled*

Woman: “Get away from me! I just want my phone back!”

Man: “No!” *muffled*

This goes on for a few minutes, but the only parts I could hear clearly were shouted. *Phone* *NO* and various curse words.

I go upstairs to the lobby to talk to the receptionist. I have no idea what time the security guards usually show up, but I know they’re there at night.

“Are either of the security guards in yet?”

“No, they don’t get in until later. Why?”

“I heard a man and woman shouting in the locker room, but I couldn’t tell if they were fighting or just arguing loudly. I thought maybe someone should check just to be safe.”

“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. I’m not supposed to leave the desk unattended.”

“Oh, hm…”

“Stop by when you finish your workout and tell me if they’re still fighting. I might be able to do something then.”

“Ok, thanks.”

So, I head back downstairs, passing the exterior door to the men’s room. It’s halfway open. A guy walks out of it, closing the door behind him as he leaves. I pause a second to get a look at him, and as I pass the doorway, a woman comes rushing out calling for help.

“Hey, please help me. This guy threw me against a wall in there. He hit my head against the wall!”

“Don’t listen to her. This is none of your business.”

“He hit me. Don’t leave me with him.”

Maybe not the smartest move, but I do let the girl kind of stand to one side of me, placing myself between her and the man.

He starts reaching for the woman’s arm, “Don’t lie. Come on. Let’s go.”

She steps back from him, “I’m not going anywhere with you. Leave me alone!”

In a feeble attempt to explain, he turns toward me, “She’s my girl. It’s just a –”

“I’m not your girl! I’m not even your girlfriend. Where do you get off?!” She turns to me, “Will you call 911 please? This *expletive* *expletive* hit my head against a wall!”

The guy starts weighing his options. I’m clearly not leaving someone asking me for help. He gives her a final dirty look. “You don’t even live here. *expletive* this. Do what you want.” And with that, the guy walks away.

I turn to the woman, “I don’t have a phone on me. I’ll walk you upstairs to the lobby ok? We’ll call from there.”

“Did you see him? Look at him. I don’t even know his last name. He thinks I’m going to sleep with him so he’ll drive me home? Look at my phone! He threw it in the trash. Wouldn’t give it back to me and it’s brand new.”

So, I let her yell and rant as we wait for the elevator to go back upstairs. I’m still unclear as to why she was in the men’s room with this guy if she didn’t even know who he was. Even so, voluntarily walking into a men’s room for whatever reason, does not justify someone attacking you.

We approach the front desk and Woman asks DeskLady if she remembers the man she came in with. She does and even has the apartment number written down. Woman explains the situation.

DeskLady asks, “Do you want me to call his mom?”

Jigga-what now? “I thought he lives upstairs.”

“He lives with his mom,” Woman explains.

Ohhh. How old are these people?? They looked around mid-20s to me. My age. I would not expect DeskLady to offer to call my parents to someone I wronged. Maybe they’re younger than I thought. Do young people physically abuse each other? Yeah, I suppose so. You hear all those stories in the news. And yet, “all those stories” are usually stories I hear from other people telling me about these horrible tragedies they heard about in the news.

Anyway. Back to this story.

DeskLady asks Woman, “What do you want to do?”

Woman looks at me, confused, uncertain. “I guess I should call the police?”

“That’s what I’d do,” replies DeskLady encouragingly. “But I can’t call for you. You need to call.”

I can see Woman hesitating. From the TV shows I watch, I knew she should at least call to file a report and find out her options. She could change her mind about pressing charges later, but she would have less of a chance of conviction if she waited.

“You could call the non-emergency line for the police if you want. You don’t need to call 911, but it’s probably a good idea to report this either way.”

“Ok, do you have the non-emergency line?”

DeskLady looks it up for her and a few minutes later, the police are on their way. I sit out front on the benches with Woman. Over the course of the next few minutes, a lot more of the story comes out. Some strange, some key to understanding the whole situation.

She’s known this guy for ~2 years, but doesn’t know his last name. They’re just friends and have never dated, but she has dated guys in the past who have hit her. They’re in their 20s, btw. She’s 22 and he’s 24 or 25.

She was at a pool with some friends earlier and when that pool closed, he invited her to come hang out at the pool at his building. So she got a ride over with him and they hung out for a while. When that pool closed, they went in to the sauna for a bit (which is why she was in the men’s room). Then, when she decided that it was time for her to go home, he wouldn’t drive her.

He made up some excuses, said he didn’t have his car, offered to drive her home after she gave him head, etc. He left for a couple minutes, so she took out her brand new [red? I have no idea what it was] cell phone and called a friend. When he got back, she clapped her phone shut. He twists her arm and grabs it from her. When she insisted she needed to leave, he refused to let her.

She starts screaming for her phone back. There’s some shoving, fighting for the phone. She gets pushed into a wall. She hits him back. She decides it’s not worth it and is just going to leave and call the police from the lobby. He relents and just throws her phone in the trash. She goes to retrieve it. He walks out the door.

Two police officers arrive in separate patrol cars. While they’re filling out paperwork from wherever they were previously, Woman and I make small talk.

“I hate talking to police,” she confides.

“Aw, they’re not so bad… And they’re here to help you.” Did I actually say that? I just walked out of a 1980s after-school special. (”You, alright!? I learned it from watching you!” Haha, yeah…)

“What do you do for a living? You’re not a cop are you? I’ve just been bad-mouthing them,” she claps her hand over her mouth in embarrassment.

“Nah, I’m an engineer. But all the cops I’ve met have been nice.”

“Wow. An engineer. I just started fashion school,” she laughs.

“Cool.” Quickly, I try to think of a follow-up question, besides “What do you do there?”

“I don’t even know what engineers do.” She sounds almost disappointed with herself.

“Eh, I know nothing about fashion either, so I guess we’re even.”

“We have nothing in common,” we laugh together, before the imminent pause in conversation.

We talk about Cops for a few minutes before the officers exit their vehicles and take our statements. The officer speaking with Woman was well trained, but missing a little something in implementation.

“Tell me what happened.”

“Well, I’m just frustrated and angry.”

“That is understandable,” he recites from his manual on “How to Console Victims.”

“He hit my head against a wall! He took my phone! I don’t have to put up with this.”

“Of course not. No one deserves that.” Chapter 2: Everyone is Worth Something.

“He wouldn’t let me leave! He twisted my arm!”

“Wait, let’s start at the beginning.” Policing 101.

So she tells her story, starting from the middle as far as I can tell. But as she elaborates, she fills in details from the beginning.

I give my statement and contact info to Deputy Jr. Run upstairs to let Ian know I’ll be a little bit longer before dinner.

“Gonna be late for dinner. Gotta give statement to police. Be back in a few.”

Go back downstairs, listen to the tail end of Woman’s story.

Officer Robot asks Woman, “What would you like us to do?”

“What can you do? Are you going to arrest him?”

“Well, that’s up to you. You have a couple options here. 1) Walk away and, hopefully, never see this guy again. Or 2) I can go upstairs now and talk to him, ask for his side of the story. It’s up to you whether you want to go to court and press charges.”

“Do I have to go to court before anything gets done?”

“Possibly. If he admits to hitting you, we will arrest him today. And from what you’ve told us already, it sounds like we would have grounds to arrest him now anyway. He prevented you from leaving and held you against your will. That’s abduction. That’s a felony. He hit and threatened you. That’s assault and battery. He took your phone without your consent. That’s theft.

“I would like to strongly encourage you to take this to court and follow through on these charges, but it’s your decision.”

She only needs about a second of thought before responding, “I want you to go do that. Go talk to him. I want to press charges.”

I logged onto my Fidelity account last week and discovered that half my money was missing. There was no trace of it… I couldn’t find any record of it in my old statements or anything. Time. To. Panic.

Then, I realized it was my investments from my old job. Maybe they changed plans or something… So, I asked TLD what was up. They had just moved their KSOP to Principal Investments. I logged onto there and found only my stock options. Worth something, but I was only with the company ~3 years, so not where the bulk of my retirement money was coming from.

After bugging TLD some more, I found out that they had just moved the 401k stuff over last week. Should be accessible this week. I already had an account with Principal from when they moved the ESOP over there last year, which is why that showed up, but not the 401k.

Logged on this morning and found my money all there, safe and sound. *Phew*

Don’t worry, sis. I won’t have to come stay with you when I’m old, poor, and homeless. :)

Ok, so layoffs at work today. Tomorrow will be going away lunches and tonight was depression hour.

Been drinking for the past 4 hours. Doing hw and waiting to sober up before going home.

Yeah, it was that bad.

My job is safe. Most of my department is staying. Most.

IT is gone. Other departments/locations were decimated.

Half the company is gone.

LOTD: Fucking Kangaroos

Things going on…

Still haven’t gotten together for the 1/2-HOY reunion. It keeps getting pushed off because everyone’s getting old now. Eepie has to take care of a kid, Crit is dying from pneumonia, Yenny is [almost] unemployed, Marc has class on Thursdays, I have class on Wednesdays…

Craziness at work with all kinds of rumors flying around. The situation for which the president of our company explained (during an all-hands meeting) with a thumb down and a “plbthththbth” noise has come to fruition. The next few weeks should be exciting. But, you know, in the bad way.

Watched Pirates two weekends ago. Watched Knocked Up last weekend. Careful, the ending is crazy scary. Knocked Up, I mean, not Pirates. This was the first movie I’ve watched with Ian where he actually covered his eyes because it was so scary. Or gross. One of those. Sonny did not scream like a little girl though.

Helped NewGirl move. We swiped a dolly from the office. And half our department was there to help her, including Boss Jr. Only one broken desk and the cactus survived. I’d say it was a success.

Had some good family time this past weekend. Hung out with Sonny and his friends watching Knocked Up and playing Boggle(TM). Then, everyone got together for a Fathers’ Day party. There was cake, but no singing. I missed out on Lenny’s housewarming/Fathers’ Day/100-day baby thing though. I heard there was cake there too.

Got good feedback about the project at work that I’ve been working on. We had our big presentation 3 weeks ago and will have another in 2-3 more weeks.

Saw JL2 a couple weeks ago when I was in his area for a meeting. Met up with him for lunch and gossiped for a while.

There’s going to be a Farewell Ceremony for Sonny’s battalion next week. He was supposed to head out a few weeks ahead of them, but has been able to stick around to wrap up some stuff. So, we’ll all be heading over for the big send-off.

My cousin is getting married this weekend!

International Sub Races are next week in Carderock. I was hoping to sneak over and watch some of it, but I don’t think I’m going to have time. Attending a conference on Monday and Tuesday and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be attending the shmooze-fests in the evening.

Alright, now that I’ve gone through my calendar for the last 3 weeks, I think I’m all caught up. Woo! I’m sad that I’ve forgotten all the QOTD I’ve been collecting though. I need to start writing them down.

I have to admit this baby shower thing wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Walking in the door, everyone was given a necklace. It could be taken away from you if you were caught saying “baby.” Anna schooled everyone.

Then there was the baby food tasting thing. Nine jars of baby food with the labels removed. Try to identify each of them. Beef that smells like tuna? I have concerns. My mom won with a perfect score.

Other highlights include Anna going down to the basement to get a beer and being told to just bring the rest upstairs since she kept going down there for more. And Stephanie squealing and running away with the mudpie Ian and I brought. I didn’t think pregnant people moved that fast.

QOTD: “What’s an iTunes?”

I was beyond proud yesterday when I heard that a VP at my former job was asking around about how I was doing… in order to fish around for some gossip: 90-day Stop Work Order.

He had heard some stuff on Thursday, but wanted to know my inside info. I didn’t find out details until mid-afternoon, but all his info checked out. Two days before it hit the news too… I sent him an email back and he replied with more rumors that he heard from “overseas friends.” VP level gossip? Awesome!

Woohoo! I got an acceptance letter from Virginia Tech today.

Was I worried about getting rejected? Not really… but, at the same time, I thought I wasn’t done filling out the application yet.

I spoke with my former adviser and he told me to go ahead and submit my app without my GREs and I could submit them later. So, I did.

And then: today! I got an acceptance letter!

Woohoo!!

I’m totally going overboard looking at wedding ideas on the internet. I’m hoping to skip the bridal magazine phase since I don’t think I want to pay for anything in there, but I’m still looking around on websites for ideas that I can do myself or improvise in cheaper ways. Err… I mean frugal. Or something.

Big news for the weekend, though: Found a location! I thought once we did this, I could stop obsessing. It didn’t work, but I’m getting close. A lot of the big details are getting set — date, location, bridal party, etc. So, I’m kind of just having fun looking at arts and crafts for centerpieces and favors.

Restrictions at this location: no red beverages, no glitter or confetti, no open flames. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email me. I might even tell you what we have in mind so far. :)

When I started looking at locations, I started freaking out because it didn’t look like we could reserve a place for under $2k, pretty much the entire budget. But then I started looking for locations that didn’t look like princess weddings and it all started to be more reasonable. Then, we had to rule out outdoor venues because you’re not allowed to have alcohol there. Right now, our estimates show going over by a couple hundred dollars (that includes “rehearsal” dinner — not actually for rehearsing.), but I’m still trying to find out what I can get at a better price.

At first, it didn’t look it’d be possible to stay under budget, but now I’m taking it personally. This is a challenge to my personal beliefs. It must be possible to have a wedding for a “reasonable” price. And if we set a number for the budget, it will be done. There’s no point in setting a budget if we’re not going to stick to it. Flowers too expensive? Crossed off the list. People telling me everything has to match. Off the list. This is possible.

1. Vampires : Mirrors :: Episcopalians : Flash photography.
2. If someone forgets to unlock the doors to let the processional exit, make sure you have good ushers who are willing to scale walls and jump over bushes to open the doors from the inside.
3. Do not let your step-father talk to the bag-piper prior to the ceremony.
4. Be sure to seat the immature people together. They’ll have much more fun that way.
5. If you have candles at the tables, make sure you leave a book of matches for candles that go out. Some guests might take matters into their own hands…
6. Don’t invite people who have known you a long time. They have a few too many stories…
7. Leave embarrassing pictures of the groom around. People will sign them and leave happy notes.
8. Hotel, ceremony, and reception in the same building — the drinking never stops. Ingenious!
9. Lotto tickets make for awesome wedding favors. (Ian won $10!)
10. Every wedding must have the electric slide. It’s just not a real wedding otherwise.

It was a fun wedding. Got to see some people I haven’t seen in a while. (Namely, the bride and groom.) I finally met JL2’s father. I’ve only known JL2 12 years… I don’t know when I would have had the opportunity to meet him. Caught up with Roy and his girl. Hung out with the girl, mostly, while Roy was off doing groomsmanly stuff. And that’s about it. Lots of eating, drinking, and dancing.

Oh and the cake! One of the cake layers was red velvet cake. It was fantastic. Kudos to whoever chose that layer of the cake. The other layers were good, but just completely over-shadowed by the red velvet. Yes, Ian and I tried all the layers. :P