Stephanie sent this around at work: http://www.myholidaysweater.com/
Thought I'd share my creation:
Haha ... this thing is awesome!
... as getting my Virginia voter registration card. ;-)
My adventure started with the website. The only vehicle-related information I could find to navigate toward through Arlington's main site sent me to an area where I could complete a "new vehicle registration" online. I slowly and suspiciously completed that process, even paying the required $24. Turns out, that's for the county-specific decal. Only. So that did not fully "register" my "new vehicle." Silly me. Only by completing a search of the Arlington site (because I was just sure that that wasn't it) did I find the main DMV site that proceeded to inform me that I was nowhere near being done with my vehicle registration. I did, however, discover that I didn't have to go clear across town to get my tags. Just a block from my Metro stop.
Oh, if only it were that simple. I knew where I was headed. Courthouse Plaza. I ran into a slight problem, though ... when the building didn't have any kind of address or sign (NONE). The building was being renovated, so I walked around for about 20 minutes trying to locate an invisible address and finally made an educated guess and walked through a random door. Tah-dah!
I stepped into a mess of scaffoldings, walls without sheetrock, and other remnants of contruction. I was seriously not sure for two full minutes of wandering if I was supposed to be in there or if it was a construction-worker-only zone. Finally spotted "Information" and asked someone, which resulted in another five minutes of wandering, before I found another person to ask who successfully directed me to where I needed to go. Oh! Suite 218 is now (temporarily) in the vicinity of suite 203! And silly, silly me ... I missed that miniscule sign.
I will say, however, that the ladies helping me -- all three of them, at all three different windows, after waiting in all three different lines -- were wonderfully nice!
Tonight, I attempted to make a calzone. No recipe. Just a description from the gal at the Mellow Mushroom in Tuscaloosa: mozzarella, garlic butter, parmesan. Got it.
So I got some dough ... and the above ingredients ... and just kind of ... made it. Turned out gooooood. Need to play with my "recipe" some more to get it just right, and I have NO idea how long it was in the oven for, but I'm well on my way to getting this heavenly, cheesey creation down pat! (Or as close as I can get it for now.)
Skipping back to the mention of Mellow Mushroom. I met a young woman at the Mellow Mushroom in Tuscaloosa who said she was looking to open one of her own somewhere after she graduates college. I responded with an ecstatic plea that she open one in DC. Gave her my card and everything. Cross your fingers that she decides to head up this way. (It was between this area or the West Coast.) "DC! DC!"
P.S. Just googled "Mellow Mushroom calzone recipe" in search of, well, the recipe. (Heh. After I've already baked and eaten the thing.) The most prominent and high-ranking items are several not-so-rave reviews of their calzones. Hmm. More than 5,000 links in Technorati. Looks like somebody has an opportunity to be utilizing the online space better ...
:-)
It never fails. I have the worst luck with travel. However, I find myself amazingly ... serene.
In the last 45 minutes, I've discovered that my original flight has been delayed --more than an hour -- which forces me to miss the second leg of my trip. BUT. I learned my lesson from last time. I'm not waiting to make other arrangements to assure my arrival at my final destination. I went ahead made it clear that since I'll be missing my connection, I need to make other flight plans NOW.
And we did! I'm actually going a completely different route, including a different flight out of B'ham ... and I'll get into DC only an hour later than originally planned. I'm A-OK with that.
Thumbs-up to Walter M. with U.S. Airways for being so helpful and persistent in making sure I get to DC tonight! :-)
Oh, and instead of heading to Philly, I'll be connecting in Charlotte
(again). Hey, at least I know I've got free wireless there.
Have you ever Googled your own name? How did you feel about the results?
Submitted by elen.
Well, now that you mention it ...
I hadn't in a while, and now those other "Erin Caldwells" in the world are creeping up in the rankings! Most of the whole first page used to be me for a while. I guess I have a fairly unique name. Among Web mentions, at least.
The others range from a marketing professional in New York (who has a blog about the Green Party of Monroe County) to a staff member at a church in Fairfax (guess that would make her my neighbor :). Oh and this is way cool -- there is also an Erin Caldwell who is a certified energy system healer.
Erins are ultra cool. :-)
I'm heading back to DC after a few days at home for the holiday. Twas a very nice visit ... more on that later.
But here I am, back at the airport. And apparently, I look like a yougin' who's never flown before. I was checking myself in at the kiosk, getting my boarding pass, etc. I've flown quite a bit in the last several months. I've got this down pat.
But this time, a woman working for the airline came over to help me part-way through.
I thought she was friendly at first, but I found myself flustered and annoyed with her by the end of our exchange. She proclaimed that I needed to select my seat, and before I had a chance to tell her I'd already done so, she'd punched this and that and navigated the screen to the seat selection feature. "Where do you want to sit?" I pointed to the green seat and said, "Isn't that me?"
From there, it was just amusing. Turns out, I have to check in with a different airline when I get into Philly, since I'm flying the first leg on U.S. Airways and the second on United. That's perfectly fine. I have a two-hour layover. No problem. But after she checked -- repeatedly -- with another woman working behind the counter, she proceeded to explain to me -- repeatedly -- that I'll need to check in with United in Philadelphia. I really wanted to say, "Yes, I caught that about 5 mintues ago." (Subtext: "Thank you, I'm not deaf. Or 12.")
She finally turned me loose, and I was on my way.
I guess I look terribly incompetent today. I'm wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and a sweatshirt. Hmm.
I meant to write about this last night, but forgot.
Coming home from work on the Metro yesterday, I saw ... a giant! No kidding!! He was very tall. Very tall. With very large features (hands, feet, etc.). I felt very small. It was fun.
And now, sitting in the airport, I spy ... an older guy wearing a cap that says, "Marine Dad." I smiled. Proud Poppa.
I looked around to see if there's anything else I can include in this
episode of "I spy." Nheh. Not really. Just ... you
know ... people.
Life is never dull.
All this time, I'd been thinking I was flying out of Reagan -- which is my preferred airport by far. That's maybe a 5 minute cab ride from my apartment. Flight departs at 3:30. Figured I'd leave my apartment around 1:30. No worries.
I decided to double check my itinerary again to make sure my flight left at 3:30. I got the time right. Got the airport wrong. I was booked to fly out of Dulles, which added about a 45-minute drive just to get to the airport. Plus the mess of having to drive myself and park. Blech.
But the funny thing is that I was so worried about how long it was going to take me to get to this airport, I gave myself plenty of time and ended up getting there more that two hours before my flight was scheduled to leave.
"Scheduled to leave ..." what an interesting concept. Yeah. Flight didn't depart until after 6:00. That's about 30 minutes after my connecting flight (that I was supposed to catch in Charlotte, NC) was scheduled to depart. Needless to say, I missed it.
So here I am. In the airport in Charlotte. A city that I can never remember if it's Charlotte or Charlottesville or Charleston. Nheh. Shmay.
I don't like this airport because 1) I'm stuck here, 2) they don't have screens with flight information in convenient locations, and 3) it's freaking COLD in here!!!
But. It does have wireless internet. Free wireless internet. Which is making this somewhat bearable.
And my poor dad is stuck in Birmingham -- which is a two-hour drive from Demopolis -- waiting on me to get there. Whoops. Sorry. At least I know I have a seat on the flight that's leaving for B'ham in three hours. I didn't even have that 10 minutes ago!
(sigh) ... I'll get home eventually. Hopefully around 1:00
a.m. (Kinda wacky that "hopefully" is attached to that time.)
What's your favorite heartbreak song?
Submitted by esta86.
Hmm. I don't think I have a "woe is me" kind of heartbreak song. I've had my heart broken. Once. Mmm ... about three years ago. It was devasting. In that heavily-guarded, only certain people saw the real effects kind of way.
The music I listened to at that time is the music I relate to heartbreak. The funny thing is that it's the stuff I listen to now when I'm gritting my teeth, bearing down hard, blasting through a cardio plateau to kick my heart rate up a notch when I'm on the elliptical.
Hmm.
