Bye-bye, work!

Today is my last day at my soon-to-be-former paper The Voice . To bid adieu, I wrote a column.

You can read the entire piece HERE

 

55A

Let's say you're bored between the hours of, oh, I don't know --  noon on Jan. 7 and 4 a.m. Jan. 8 and want to know exactly where I'll be? That's me, seat 55 A.

Notice how multiple rows in front and behind me are empty? Notice how there's no one in the seats next to me? 

Don't be a fool and book 55 B, OK?

Packing

In two weeks, I'm moving to Shanghai. 

There's probably a lot more I could say about that, but I've exhausted myself trying to figure out how to pack. 

What do you pack to move 7,000 miles away? How do you fit it all in one suitcase? 

I did a "test run" last weekend and the results were less than awesome. And since then I've given up. 

And then I bought this book and I keep telling myself it will really come in handy!

{I have a column coming out Dec. 29 that covers the 'why' of moving to Shanghai, I'll link to it here at that time!}

How to condense a three day trip into 1:30

Back from D.C.

Here's our trip in a minute and a half:

Day 1:
DTW to BWI
Shuttle to MARC/Amtrak station
Car ride to Baltimore for crab cakes (uh, at an Irish restaurant..we were tired, OK?)
Back to MARC/Amtrak station
MARC to Union Station in D.C.
Metro at Union Station to Foggy Bottom Metro station
Hotel
Dinner at Luigi's on 19th
Monuments at night

Day 2:
Breakfast
Tried to pick up metro at Metro Center to go to rally
Trains too packed, walked instead
Rally where we had no cell reception
Post rally walk back to hotel with 200,000 other people
Science Club 

Day 3:
Union station to drop of bags and then head to Newseum

Columbia, district of

D.C. in 10 days

We'll rally a little and then dally a lot.

Virginia: The Movie

Short video of my Virginia trip last month. As you can see, most of the time was spent in the car.  

(And most of this is probably Ohio/Pennsylvania, 'cause if you've driven that way out of Michigan, you know about Ohio/Pennsylvania....and how they just never, never end. )

Change -- get it? Get it?

 

{Old 2008 snapshot of Sam Roberts by Kim Scherer when we had a Great Canadian Adventure}

On Saturday, I went to Canada to see this fella by the name of Sam Roberts. He was opening for some band called Weezer. (I know what you're thinking, and it's not the incarcerated rapper with a penchant for women and gold teeth.) We actually left halfway through Weezer.

 While in Canada, I had poutine with my friends Jen and Keith. 

Poutine from a truck, under the bridge, by the river -- 'cause that's classy! And poutine should always be classy!

I made it home with a handful of this: Canadian coins. 

I always think I'm broke when I head home from Canada. Then I find 8 pounds worth of coins in my bag. 

I'm still broke, because I can't use it here, but it sort of makes me feel better about not having spent all my money and I sometimes find places to unload it in the U.S.

I used to live in an apartment complex where the washing machines took Canadian quarters. When I was in college, I also found parking meters that took Canadian change.

I've tried once -- or twice -- to take my Canadian money to my bank and have once -- or twice -- been told that I couldn't exchange foreign currency there. Which was weird because if there was a place you'd think you could exchange foreign currency, it would be a bank.

(Same topic, different story: I was once frowned upon by a Swiss Chalet waitress somewhere outside of Toronto when I asked for "singles" so I could leave her a tip. "Singles?" "Yes, could I please have some singles?" "Singles?" "Yes, singles.....dollars?" "Ohhhhh.")