dear life

Dear the best shoes EVER,

Thanks for making me the envy of K Street. I still can't believe I got you for such a good deal.

Love,
Your Stylish Owner


Dear giant tree on K Street,

Thanks for not falling on top of me today.
Appreciatively Yours,
Tara


Dear Twilight movie,

I hate you for coming out on my birthday. I hate your books so much and I will maintain my non-readership status until the day I die. I'm already sick of this movie and it's still not coming out for another 4 months.
Hatefully Yours,
Me

4,000+

I saw this little challenge on another blog, and I decided to do it, for lack of a better topic because I'm having a bit of writer's block lately :)

If you are in shuffle mode, what are the first twenty songs that come up on your iPod? And no skipping past the embarrassing stuff.

I have more than 4,000 songs on my iPod, so this should be interesting!


1. West Side Story- LFO
Wow, does this bring back memories from 7th grade! Ohhhh boy bands.

2. Buy You a Drank- T. Pain f/ Young Joc
Really? I should get rid of this. So last summer.

3. One World- Celtic Women
I love Celtic Women! Everytime they're on PBS I watch it. Mom and I saw them in concert a few years ago, and it was so cool. Be jealous.

4. Demons- Guster
It was on a CD from clare a few summers ago. I still really enjoy this song.

5. August's Rhapsody- August Rush
August Rush was a cute movie, and this song is from the climatic scene. Really good orchestral piece.

6. The Chair- George Strait
Making mommy proud.

7. Learn to Live with what You are- Ben Folds
I love Ben Folds! His songs take up a big chunk of my music collection

8. Traffic in the Sky- Jack Johnson
"JJ Casuals, Shoes that look like Feet!"

9. Hollywood- Daniel Powter
Daniel Powter had one good song that was on the radio. I like this one more, I think it deserved some airplay!

10. Lean on Me- Bill Withers
Classic.

11. Let it Be- Beatles via Across the Universe
I love this version, and will always love The Beatles.

12. I'll Cover You- Rent
I'll always love Rent, too.

13. Food Good- Wicked
Wow, another showtune. Not a big surprise. Glad I was able to see this show in person, original cast and all! Love Idina and Kristin and everything about them and this song.

14. Giving it Away- Mae
Mae will always make me think of freshman year because that's when I was obsessed with them, and will always haunt me if I ever wake up to "The Ocean" as my alarm ever again.

15. The Way You Look Tonight- Michael Buble
On my playlist for my wedding reception!

16. This is the Moment- Donny Osmond
Obligatory mormon artist. Donny should not sing showtunes other than Joseph.

17. Barbie Girl- Aqua
Hello 5th grade.

18. Since You've Been Gone- Kelly Clarkson
This song will be played at every BYU dance until I'm 30, at least.

19. Stop and Stare- One Republic
Over it.

20. I Heard Love is Blind- Amy Winehouse
From Amy's pre-crazy/drug days. "Frank" is a really good album.

21. Wind Beneath My Wings- Bette Midler
To use Alex's term- LALOL. I can't believe this is on here.

22. S Club Party- S Club 7
I only leave it on here for those inevitable late-night dance parties with my bests.

23. Fabulous- HSM 2
Yeah, i'm 21 and have HSM on my ipod. Get over it.

24. Without Love- Hairspray
Not the Zac Efron version, unfort.

25. Baby I Would- O-Town
Starting and ending this list with boy bands, never a better way to describe me. This song is horrible (Compared with the other genius songs such as "Liquid Dreams," of course).

Your Turn!

kevski

this post is dedicated to the love of my life, kevin francis wenzel. after this week, i won't see him until christmas :-(

les touristes

i figured i'd post while i'm waiting for my clothes to dry...on the second try.

this weekend was filled with visitors! laurel and mr. & mrs. congdon came to visit this weekend, and we had lots of fun. i took the day off today to go on a tour of the capitol with laurel...and kevin gave the tour! while we were in the gallery (for the house of representatives), they actually opened this week's session with a Speaker pro tempore coming in and banging the gavel, audience rising, pledge of allegiance, etc. i hope we were on c-span (but probably not).

anyway, here are some pictures from this weekend:

(kev and annie at jazz in the garden)

(laurel and i at the jazz concert)

(georgetown cupcakes for mrs. c's birthday!)

(e and i at the lincoln memorial. oh, and there's my hair)

(striking a pose at the washington monument)

(kev and laurel after our tour)

(me and brigham)

ps- mrs. c....can you have mr. c send some of your pics my way? thanks! :-)

so last night someone was in the hart senate office building threatening to jump. this was the second jumper in 3 days! on saturday, i was inconvenienced by another jumper threatening to jump off the GWU hospital. the whole area where our apt is was roped off, and there were a lot of angry, hot and sweaty people around. i guess he didn't end up jumping, but fell pretty hard when trying to climb down and was hurt badly.

in other news...i chopped my hair off! 7 inches. it feels great. i don't have a picture yet (i look pretty haggard after work every day, and am not in the mood to broadcast that haggard image on the internet). when i get a good picture, i'll post it. i also dyed it brown, so it was a shock to pretty much everyone in my office when i came in on monday looking completely different.

i have less than 3 weeks left here, which is pretty crazy. its gone by SO FAST! there's so much left to do, and no time to do it! guess these next few weeks will be pretty busy...

the first of many

before i start...can i just say that last night's SYTYCD was AMAZING. watch out chelsie, katee is slowly becoming my new favorite (i still voted for you 10x though). katee has ventured into new dance territory for two weeks in a row now, first with the bollywood dance and then last night's pas de deux, which were both incredible. while everyone else does the same old ballroom and contemporary genres each week, katee gets to expand her abilities beyond expectations. with that, BYE COMFORT. must suck to get kicked off two weeks in a row.

and now for my real post...

"the 5 best burgers i've ever had in my entire life."

(i plan to do more like this in the future, hence the title of the post). what sparked this, you ask? my trip to five guys this afternoon, and my current state of boredom. even though i'm stuffed right now, i'm pretty sure i'll get hungry again just typing this out. prepare to salivate. (note: all of these are chesseburgers.)

#5. In-N-Out (Las Vegas)- although it was memorable, it just wasn't my favorite. it was very, very good and i had no qualms about going back again the next week! now, there are knockoff INO's all over utah valley. i should probably try one of them sometime.
#4. Five Guys (Washington, DC)- multiple award-winning and zagat rated. five guys is great because you get more bang for your buck. two all-beef patties for only 4-ish dollars! that, combined with an overflowing order of their equally famous fries, and it would probably last you through winter hibernation. the burgers are juicy and hand-shaped to perfection. yum!

#3. Sonic Burger (Sonic)- just the thought of a nice, juciy sonic burger is making me so hungry right now. i hate all the teaser commercials around here for sonic, because there AREN'T ANY NEAR ME. i can't wait to go back to provo, order a sonic burger and get all the toppings all over my shirt. ahhh, memories.#2. Bacon and Bleu burger (Ruby Tuesday)- Sadly, this one is off the RT menu, but it will never be forgotten by my stomach. I'm a fan of bleu cheese, so a burger + bleu cheese automatically caught my attention. always left me satisfied and smiling (that's what she said...).

#1. Royal Red Robin Burger (Red Robin)- Absolutely hands down my favorite burger ever. everyone scoffs at me because it has a fried egg on it and therefore must be disgusting. well, guess what. it's not. and if you're going to hate me for not liking sushi, i can hate you for not even giving this thing a chance. the egg just gives it that little something extra. when it meshes with the chesse and the burger and the ketchup...pure bliss. not to mention that it is a gigantic burger with lots of generous toppings. AND red robin has the best fry and fry sauce combination on this earth. seriously. get yourself to red robin soon and try it.

Honorable mentions:
-McDonald's Double Chesseburger- yeah, i said it. mcdonalds. what more could you ask for for $.99?
-Chik-fil-a's Chicken sandwich- shut up, i know it's not a burger, but it counts in my mind. another thing i miss about utah (but I don't miss much else).

i can't dance...

...but mark and chelsie sure can. in anticipation of tonight's episode, here is my favorite dance of the season. snaps for chelsie because she's from orem!





project runway is on tonight, too! wednesday's are good again :)

FIERCE.

utilizing the ever-so-popular letter/blog format

Dear GW Housing,

Please fix the 6+ broken dryers in City Hall. 4 dryers are just not enough to facilitate all us interns who have to do our laundry on the weekends. Thanks. While you’re at it, fix the swipe in the elevator, too. Playing musical elevators every morning because my card won’t work is not a very fun game.
Not so sincerely,
An unhappy resident

Dear Mother Nature,

What was with that storm yesterday? Not even my very trusty umbrella kept me from getting completely drenched on the 1 minute walk/run from the metro. And I was afraid I would float away in the current rushing on the side of the road. That wasn’t very cute!
Cordially,
Tara

Dear Gossip Girl,

I can’t wait for your return in September. I need some more Blair Waldorf in my life to help keep me fierce and fabulous.
Fiercely yours,
Tara L. Waldorf

Dear Famous DC,
Thanks for linking me on Hyper Hill. Nearly gave me a heart attack when I first saw it, but it was cool to be famous for a day.
Regards,
tarablogs

i'm back...

Sorry, readers. I've been quite lazy lately and haven't given you any updates! I promise not to go on hiatus like that ever again!

Looking back on my recent trip to Manhattan, I feel like I was kind of jaded. I was coming from a big city and therefore wasn’t in as much anticipation as I usually am coming from good ole Fairport. But New York made me realize how much I have come to love DC, despite its faults. For the past few weeks I’ve tried to come up a list of rants and raves, and I’ve finally finished them. Read on…

Rants

-Drivers. I recently read that DC has the worst drivers in America (thanks to all those Maryland commuters…). I can’t get over how many people disregard simple traffic rules here, or seem to think that they’re invincible and that traffic will magically clear for them. The worst cases I see are in the traffic circle next to my building. As I cross two streets in the circle daily, I see SO MANY drivers who cut from the inside lane to the outside one to exit the circle. They routinely cut off buses, bikes, and other cars at dangerously close ranges. Most don’t use turn signals when they do this. If they do use a turn signal, they usually also think it means they can cut off the person in the lane next to them and merge into that lane. I’ve seen 2 or 3 accidents resulting from this. ALSO: those drivers who exit the circle have zero regard for us pedestrians, who have a mere 15 seconds to scramble across 4 lanes of traffic during rush hours. STOP STEALING MY PRECIOUS SECONDS. Don’t even get me started on those who run through yellow lights, only to be sitting 5 cars deep in the middle of an intersection on K street when the other light turns green…)

-Weather. I’m pretty sure it’s rained every single weekend since I’ve been here. And while the thunderstorms were cool at first, they aren’t so much anymore.

-Metro fares. So deceiving! I seem to be adding $10 to my SmartTrip every 5 days, and I don’t even ride the metro that often!

-Closing time. Last week, M, E and I went to Friendship Heights to do some shopping. Imagine our surprise when we get there around 7 to find most of the stores closed or closing. By 8 p.m. everything was closed (except cheesecake factory…) and it seems that they close at 8 every day. How is any 9-5er supposed to get anything done after work/dinner? All the starbucks close around 7 or 8, too. So weird. You’d think in a big city it would be a lot different. Even Eastview Mall doesn’t close until 9:30!!

Raves

-Food. We’ve eaten at some top notch places down here. Most recently (last night…) at Dr. Granville Moore’s on H St. NE, whose chef was challenged to a Throwdown with Bobby Flay! We went for the famous Moules Frites (or in my case, burger frites) and were not disappointed. Other places of note include Nooshi, Zed’s Ethiopian, Five Guys, and McCormick & Schmick's.

-Going out. Two words- Tom Tom.

-Metro. So deceiving, but also so convenient (except when your destination is H St. NE). Also thanks to the .25 metro bus that lets us avoid the sketchy walk from the Adams Morgan metro stop to the ACTUAL Adams Morgan area. And, its so clean and smell-free!

-Blogs. I love reading area blogs such as DCist and FamousDC because I actually know what they’re talking about. It’s fun to read the news too, because they mention DC all the time! No more random shoutouts to Rochester from the national news. I’m living where it all takes place!

-Nationals. Even though they are terrible and hardly ever win, it’s still cool to live in a city with an actual major league sports team. Although my first experience at a Nats game involved a scarring incident with chili cheese fries and my vera wristlet, I still want to go back again before I leave!

-History. I love reading up on the history of DC, especially how it was laid out by L’Enfant and why the tallest building is, at most, only 12 or 13 stories (FYI: L’Enfant wanted DC to resemble an “American Paris.” There’s also a city ordinance preventing any building from being taller than the statue on the dome of the capitol). I was at a rooftop cocktail party last week, courtesy of Google, and it was so cool to be able to look around the whole city. Love love love.