Quickie update

The rest of March FLEW by.  I can hardly believe it's Easter. 

But here are a few things that happened since last we talked:

• I was apprised of my first assignment with the Foreign Service at our Flag Day ceremony on 3/12: Buenos Aires 2010, baby!
• Estee came out from NYC to be my proud mama at the Swearing-In ceremony at Main State on 3/19.  We had Korean for lunch with drinks, drinks after the ceremony at the reception on the waterfront in Georgetown, and then a bottle of wine with dinner at Marcel's.  I don't think Estee has ever been so stuffed full of food and alcohol in her life!
• My friend and colleague Sean hosted a Swearing-In cocktail party on 3/20.  Many of the things that happened that evening are best left forgotten, but a good time was had by all.  Party started at 7PM and I walked in my front door around 5:30AM. 
• The last full week of March was really tough for me, but I got through it with the help of some of my friends, both new and old.  A special shout-out goes to Marilyn, Katie, Jan, and Stephanie: group hug!
• There has been far too much drinking over the last two months so I am attempting a detox.  I have failed spectacularly at least twice in the last two weeks, but I am working on it.  Especially since the amount of money I have spent buying other people drinks could have bought me that new television by now.
• I have started the process of transitioning to Buenos Aires by meeting with my country desk team at Main State so I could be informed of the biggest issues on which I will be working as the new Economics Officer at post.  Let's just say that Argentina will provide it's share of challenges.
• On Tuesday, 3/30, I spent the 2nd night of Passover with friends in Falls Church, VA.  As tradition warrants, whenever I am in DC for the holiday, I am at Jeff & Liz's seder.  They recently purchased a new home in VA so it was the first seder at the new place!  There was excellent food, excellent company, random Sherer story-telling, and plenty of singing (my ox animal noises sounded like a dying cat, but I think that's part of the fun).
• I attended my first Shakespeare Theatre Group event on 3/31, with a viewing of Henry V at Harmon Hall.  It is one of the few Shakespeare plays I have never read and I think the cast did an excellent job of bringing it to life without making it dull.  Unfortunately, I also started a round of oral typhoid meds while there so I started feeling a little high during the first act.  Ah, typhoid!
• This past Friday was so beautiful that Sean and I decided an outside happy hour was mandatory.  We rounded up Marilyn for evening drinks on Marvin's rooftop deck and were pleasantly surprised to find that Marvin's was celebrating Marvin Gaye's birthday with a live band.  It was exactly what we wanted and needed.  So fun!  Then my landlord called to tell me that the street construction crew hit a water main for our building so I shouldn't expect water until midnight.  Clearly that meant I had to stay out until midnight.  More FS troops were rounded up for dinner and drinks at DC Noodles at around 10PM.  I left at midnight, because...
• Saturday was spent at the Cherry Blossom Festival!  AT SUNRISE.  Marilyn, Stephanie and I decided the best time of day to experience the cherry blossoms is sunrise, so up at 5:30AM it was.  We walked down to and around the tidal basin, taking in the cherry blossoms, the spring flowers, the FDR Memorial, the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument, the PUPPIES!, the amateur photographers with their wieldy tripods and camera equipment, the Einstein statue, the Lincoln Memorial, and, finally, the California Grill for a much deserved breakfast.  We were back home by 9:30AM - Stephanie tells me we walked almost 10 miles.  Whew!

And today is Easter!  A group of us are heading to Sean's for an Easter BBQ, which should be very relaxed and awesome.  Until then, I am just trying to get everything together to be prepared for Monday and yet another week of Spanish training.  These days my life is chaotic and full and exhausting, but also wonderful and rich and exciting.  I have definitely had some really bad moments, a lot of anxiety, some drama, and some tears, but I am also doing everything I can to fully enjoy the here and now, to be a good friend, to make new friends, and to be the best Foreign Service Officer I can be.  Some day I'll take an accounting of all of this, but for now I'm just trying to enjoy the ride.

Select Southern Sayings for March

I have been derelict in my duty to keep you updated on all the southern sayings of the day, but I clearly have had too much to do with the new job to keep up with my Blog.  Hey, it happens...

So, without further ado, a few select sayings for the rest of March:

Stupidity
If dumb were dirt, he'd be about an acre.

If you're referring to the time you chewed out someone, you might say...
I preached his funeral.

When referring to someone who is uppity, you might say...
She's the honey, but the bees don't know it.

Serious problem
Now ain't this a fine howdy-do.

Stinginess
He's so tight that when he blinks, his toes curl.

A sweet talker
She can talk the legs off a table.

Southern sayings of the week

Like I've told a handful of people over the last few days, I feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends.  All I do these days is work, and then plan social events for coworkers.  Sleep has not been much of a priority.  Consequently, neither has the upkeep of my Blog. 

So, instead of your daily does of adorably quaint southern sayings, today you are getting the past week of them, free of charge:

Friday, Feb 26th (when I was drinking far too much for my single kidney on an empty stomach at Policy Bar with colleagues and, luckily, my friend Jan - whom was clearly tasked with taking me home when I walked up to him and said, "I am really not sober right now.  Take me home."):
Hothead
He could start an argument in an empty house.

Saturday, Feb 27th (when I was recovering from aforementioned over-drinking, then going out to dinner and a house party with my friends Ali and Joey, whom I met in Peru and whom were both visiting DC - Ali, to visit friends and Joey to close out his service with the Marine Corps) and Sunday, Feb 28th (when I was brunching with Ali and Joey and then packing for an offsite for work and cooking dinner for Marilyn while we watched the end of the U.S. Olympic hockey game):
Surprised
Well, tie me to an anthill and fill my ears with jam!

Monday, March 1 (when I was at The Woods in Hedgesville, West VA, completing challenges relating to the acquirement of one "torch of knowledge," and drinking at the resort bar from 4PM onwards - don't worry, I switched to water after 2 beers):
Complainer
He's so ungrateful, he'd gripe with a ham under each arm.

Tuesday, March 2 (when I had just returned from wild and wonderful West Virginia, got really pissed off at a friend of mine, stewed for an hour or so, and then went to a local Korean restaurant for dinner and drinks by myself - the bartender took pity on me and gave me a 3-1 free to paid drink ratio; don't worry, the problem more or less resolved itself by 1AM):
If someone is chewing you out, you might say...
Oh, don't get your tail up and stinger out!

Wednesday, March 3 (when I paid for my dry cleaning but accidentally left it in the store, took my little sister out for dinner, and had drinks with her and her boyfriend):
Unattractive
He's so ugly he gets hired to haunt houses.

Thursday, March 4 (when I attended a happy hour set up by the social committee with my colleagues at Four Courts in VA before jumping ship and watching the Caps/Lightning game at the Verizon Center with Ali, Joey and Scott - awesomeness!  We had seats right behind the Lightning penalty box.)
When you're talking about a person who acts as if he knows it all, you might say...
He thinks he's captain of the corn pile.

Friday, March 5 (when I attened yet another happy hour set up by the social committee with my colleagues, this time in DC, and then ate sushi and experienced some improv comedy at The Source):
Brother-in-law
He's as useless as a milk bucket under a bull.

And now, the weekend saying for Saturday, March 6 (while I am trying to clean up my apartment, do laundry, go grocery shopping, draft a speech for the public speaking portion of my orientation, and relax before either heading out to dinner with my friend, Jan, and/or attending a house party being thrown by my carpool driver, Max) and Sunday, March 7 (when I will be a lazy ass all day before entertaining some of my girlfriends with take-out and a screening of the Oscars):
Country Bumpkin
He lives so deep in the backwoods he thinks asphalt is a butt disease.

(As a side note, Estee: how the hell do you do it???  I finally know what it is like to be you, constantly working or thinking about work...and I seriously want to die.  Dude, who can survive on 4 or 5 hours of a sleep a night?!!!  I'm thinking my speech for class may actually start sounding like the screenplay for Dirty Dancing!)

Southern saying of the day

To compliment your wife, you might say...
You're prettier than a glob of butter meltin' on a stack of wheat cakes.

Southern saying of yesterday

I didn't want to leave this one out, because I kind of like it.

Anger
He was as mad as a mule chewin' bumblebees.

Now all I need is Martha's Alabamian drawl...

Southern saying of the day

If your friend is setting unrealistic goals, you might say...
You're hangin' your basket higher than you can reach.

Southern saying of the day (11 minutes late)

Intelligence
He's as dull as a widow woman's ax.