A Little Trip to the Big Apple

New York, New York. To all of my friends living in the Big Apple, I salute you. Every time I visit your metropolis, I return to little DC utterly tuckered out. In one day of business meetings in New York, I easily walked more than three miles! Cabs are expensive and your subway scares me (really, how long does it take you to learn that thing! I am so spoiled by the DC metro.) Also, every time I visit your city it is extremely hot and humid, which is not conducive weather for pre-business meeting nerves. But I have to say: when I took this job, trips like this were exactly what I envisioned, and overall I had a fantastic time!

Awesome perk number one was my room at the Algonquin Hotel. I was told it is the oldest hotel in NYC, and has a very rich Hemmingway-esque look and history. I’ve never stayed at a place like this and since my family is really more into lodgings that have “Budget” or “Econo” in the name, I doubt I’ll stay someplace like it again any time soon. The bed was an enormous king and the Victorian bathroom fixings and décor were lovely. The lobby was luxurious and the walls were papered with old cartoons from "The New Yorker." And you KNOW it was high class when the mini-shampoos are from Bath and Body Works! You better believe I brought those home. The free cocktail upon arrival and free sit-down breakfast in the morning didn’t hurt either. I was only sad my work took up more time and I couldn’t lounge around and enjoy the place more!

During the day I went around Manhattan meeting some of CER’s supporters and donors, talking to them about CER’s priorities and asking them about their needs. It was exciting tromping around the city in heels and a blazer, handing out my freshly minted business card and learning a lot about the state of education in NYC from some amazing people. I had a real “living the dream” feeling when I was there, and hope it’s just the start for me doing trips like this.

Best of all, I got to grab a bite with Stephanie and Stacey and catch up on their NYC lives since we last visited. My old Syracuse girls are so dear to me and I’m happy to report that they’re both doing very well in their journalism careers. I’m so proud of them! I enjoyed my copy of “Parenting” magazine compliments of editor Steph the whole train ride home, probably to the surprise/judgment of my fellow passengers!

Since my return to DC, my schedule has been packed with the usual joys of life these days- visiting new restaurants in my neighborhood, wine nights with the ladies, babysitting my adorable charges, cocktail parties, delightful dates, amazing fall weather… I take back the phrase “usual joys.” There is no such thing. I’m amazingly grateful and lucky for all the cool and special things I get to experience lately.

Tomorrow I go to an official “weather watchers” training class with the Washington Post. Prepare for a gleefully nerdy entry soon!

Peace and Love.

Jumping Out of a Plane

On my birthday in January, there was a Groupon for a skydiving session at a seriously reduced rate. And although skydiving has always been on my bucket list, probably since I heard my dad's stories of jumping out of helicopters, I had no plans to do it this year. But, here was the coupon, it was my birthday, I was feeling crazy, and my friend Brian wanted someone to go with... so in one swift click I had a skydiving ticket on my hands.

We finally set the date and drove out to rural Virginia to redeem our ticket. It gets REALLY country REALLY fast outside of DC, and we were in some serious farmland by the time we got to the dirt road leading to the address. I was a bit miffed- in my mind I was definitely expecting an air strip, but as we followed the spray-painted signs on scraps of corrugated tin that said "skydiving", I realized I was not in for such luxuries.


I'm sure the guys who we skydived with were professionals, they had something like 6,000 jumps each to their names, but nothing about this place made you feel like you were in good hands. It was a certifiable redneck operation. Packs of random dogs ran around the yard, there were little kids clattering around in a go-kart, and the woman who put me in my harness was absolutely chain smoking and wearing pajama pants. The random barn where they kept the plane was adorned with an enormous confederate flag, and the plane itself reminded me a little bit of my dad's old 1988 Bronco II (in size and quality.)

As if I weren't nervous enough, this pack of characters who I was trusting my life to would not stop messing with us. I guess it's how they get through their boring skydiving work days. For example, they'd be like "oh man, they put you in THAT harness? I thought we grounded that harness yesterday. Oh well, it's probably fine..." or "Skydiving is really a lot better after you take some E, don't you think, man?" Against all logic, and probably driven by the sensible thought process of not wanting to look like a wuss, I got into the plane. After rumbling down the field we were off, and up into the air.

At 11,000 feet they start a 3 minute countdown. I have to say- it was sunset when we went, and it was like being in a cartoon of heaven. The sky was full of fluffy cotton-boll clouds, rimmed in gold, and below the farmland was bright green. It calmed me-- just a little-- and then they whip open the door. There is a blast of icy, sharp air, and suddenly, your feet are out of the plane on a little ledge. There's no way to describe that "looking down" moment. I know there's no way I could have jumped on my own- but thankfully, I had a push, and then you're falling, falling, falling...

This must be what shock feels like. You fall at a rate of 120 mph and your face and whole body is consumed by freezing, penetrating wind. I thought I'd scream, or flail, or something- but I was totally and utterly without reaction. I was mentally blank. I just watched the ground get closer and closer and let myself feel the burn of the cold on my face. Then- without warning- you are snapped from your stupor and jerked suddenly upright with the opening of the parachute. My guy did some tricks with me, swirling it in fast circles and letting me "steer". In about 5 minutes time from plane to ground, we landed. Brian hit the field a few seconds after me. All we could do was stagger around and say, "Whoah. Oh my god. That was...that was so cool."

Processing 15 gallons of adrenaline does something to you. I was not hungry for the rest of the day, and Brian and I were in a state of semi-shock the whole way home. We hardly talked about anything and parted ways. I crashed asleep pretty early and days later was still trying to process the feeling of the free fall.

Now the million dollar question: Would I do it again? Nope. Not any time soon. It was wild and crazy and shocking and unreal. And for me, that's a one-time feeling. When I think back to that moment where I looked out of the open door of the plane, I still get chills. It was cool, but also utterly terrifying. I feel no need to go rushing back. Never say never, I suppose- I'm sure someone will peer pressure me into it again one day! And besides, maybe it would be different if it was any kind of operation that at least took your picture as you leaped from the plane. At least I have Brian as my witness that I did it!

Now, off to sleep after a work trip to NYC. That deserves its own blog, which I'll try to get to later this week. Peace and Love!

My Favorite Things

Last night, I participated in possibly the coolest* and most joyful thing I've ever done in D.C.

I went to a Sound of Music Sing-a-Long at Wolftrap, an outdoor Tanglewood-esqe performing arts venue just outside the city. A singalong, you say? Yes. A sing-a-long, just like that Disney series we all had as kids with the little bouncing ball and that owl that introduced each video.

I had no idea that the grown-up sing-a-long was an actual phenomenon. But apparently, it's all the rage in England (research credits: Meredith Rosenberg) where Elton John had a Sound of Music sing-a-long for his most recent birthday party. Other movies that get the honor include The Wizard of Oz and Grease.

So here's how it works: You arrive to the movie, and set up your picnic on the lawn. We brought a spread of wine, cheese, chicken kabobs, dips and chips, brownies and other tasty delights! If you're an expert, you know that you're supposed to dress up for this, because the night starts out with a costume contest. Ushers pick the best Sound of Music look-alikes and invite them to the stage. People were so creative! There were herds of kids in hand-sewn curtain playclothes, plenty of nuns (some in drag!) and every variety of "favorite things". Of course, the cutest little Gretel walks away with the prize, but it's awesome to see what everyone is wearing.

Next, you look at the little baggie of props you were given at the door, and the host for the evening proceeds to tell you what to do with each of them. My favorite prop was a firecracker that you had to pop the moment Maria and the Captain kiss for the first time. Seeing thousands of firecrackers go off at the same moment of the kiss was hilarious! The kit had edelweiss for you to wave, cue cards, pieces of curtain fabric- it was adorable.

It was about more than the kit though. There were very specific instructions for how to best interact with the movie: For example, every time the Baroness enters the screen, you're supposed to let out a mean "hissssssss," and every time Rolf came on, you're supposed to bark like a dog "ROLF, ROLF!" We learned hand motions for every song, and the audience obeyed this without question.

And of course, the singing! The movie played from beginning to end with the words on the screen so everyone could sing along. And I have to confess something: I got all choked up! It was like being in a chorus of thousands of people, and it sounded so beautiful! More than that, it was a special night because it was just so simple and fun and pure. Grandmas and grand-kids, men and women, all ages were there, just enjoying being together, eating a nice picnic, and watching a joyful and beautiful movie. There's not too many events like that out there, and much like my trip to the fair a few weeks ago, I find the simple things make me the most happy.

If you get a chance to attend one of these sing-a-longs in your city, I can't recommend it enough. You will walk out of there on cloud 9 !

Watch the video of the experience here: http://www.wolftrap.org/Find_Performances_and_Events/Performance/11Filene/0910show11.aspx

Peace and Love.

* Cool is what YOU think is cool. - Dad Hornstein

The Rapture

Blizzards, Heat waves, Tordados, And now, the biggest earthquake in 10,000 years!
(Hurricane pending!)

Since so many of you have been wondering and calling, I figured it was time for a special bloggy report about the trembler that hit D.C. this week.

I was sitting at my desk, typing at a proposal, when the building started to rumble. The rumble was big at first, then softened, so my initial reaction was: "Oh my goodness, a truck just ran into the building!" I even tilted my head out the window to look into the alley to see if I could figure out where it had hit. But, the rumbling never completely stopped. Suddenly, the whole building started to rumble louder, and my next thought was: "Whoa! The A/C system is short circuiting ! I can hear all the pipes and lights shaking!" And THEN I realized that everything on my desk was bouncing around, and it finally dawned on me what was going on. At this point, everyone popped out of their offices and starting running around a little bit ridiculously saying "What do we do!? What do we do?!" "Get in the door frame, guys!" I yelled and took my post under my own door frame of my office. I remembered this protocol from my childhood earthquake drills in Washington State, where we actually had to bring earthquake survival kits to school.

Then, just as soon as it started, it was over. I won't lie, it was a significant earthquake- bigger feeling than what I remember in Washington, or my summer in LA. I immediately got online and logged on to the US Geological survey. Yep, it showed a magnitude 5 earthquake had just hit somewhere in Virginia. I pulled up seismographs (To my fellow nerds: they give Dopplar radar a run for its money) and began googling the news. We turned on CNN, and realized that most of DC had streamed out of its buildings and had been evacuated.

If you saw the news, you saw that the Pentagon, White House, Capital, and most of DC's offices were evacuated and sent home early. Not us. My initial reaction: Come on people, it was an earthquake. Not one single person in the entire eastern U.S. who felt this thing got so much as a scratch of an injury. On the other hand, we don't DO earthquakes here. So much of DC's architecture is Victorian, or older, and lots of the buildings just aren't safe. Even some of the new stuff is not really built to earthquake code: A brand new shopping center downtown burst a pipe and destroyed a lot of the goods in Best Buy and Marshall's below it. Later in the evening I drove by the national Cathedral, pictured above, and saw the crumbled spires. Bricks fell off of tons of old buildings and chimneys. Heck, even the Washington Monument got a crack! 5.8 is real for us, so I guess better safe than sorry.

DCPS and PG county public schools were cancelled for a few days to assess the broken buildings and potential pipe leaks. Apparently more than 60 schools were damaged in PG county, my old stomping grounds. The other major catastrophe was the evening commute. The metro simply was not running. There were thousands of people packed onto the trains, which ran at 15 mph. Police were brought in to manage the crowds. I read all of this online and decided to try and take a bus home. But then, to my great dismay, I read that the traffic lights were out downtown and the entire city was gridlocked. My coworker told me it took him 2 hours to drive 3 miles!! I realized it would be better to stay in Bethesda and wait it out, so I called around for some company and went poking around the shops uptown. Eventually, I made it home after 11pm.

This post already feels outdated with the approach of Hurricane Irene this weekend. It's hard to say how bad DC is going to have it when it comes to this storm. Some reports have it tracking west, putting DC in the middle of the path of destruction. Other reports have us missing it all together. But a strong possibility for tons of rain and wind and power outages are definitely on the horizon. As a matter of fact, I just got a very disconcerting robocall from our electric company. The message essentially was, "Hello, you're definitely going to lose power, and we've got a lot of trucks we're borrowing from other states, but uh, it may be a few days, so uh, get ready."

Great.

I'll be sure to report how things go this weekend- until then, it's off to the grocery store to try and pick up the last of the batteries, some bottled water and maybe a brew or two to get us through the storm !

Peace and Love.

The 63rd Annual Montgomery County Agricultural Fair

All of the families walking the streets of Bethesda were talking about it. The old guys in line at the bagel shop were excited. Even the Washington Post dedicated a whole section to discuss it. It's fair season, and the 63rd Annual Montgomery County Agricultural fair was not to be missed!

I've been going to fairs all my life. I have lots of fun memories as a kid being addicted to the impossible carnival games, riding gut-wrenching upside-down rides and stuffing myself with sickening fried food. I loved seeing the animals and staring at the beautiful produce. I've been to tons of fairs, from the famous Puyallup fair in Washington to the ever classic New York State Fair in Syracuse. So when I heard talk of a fair here in DC, I knew I had to go!

Saturday was the last day of the fair and Jason had the day off, so when a bright and sunny day arrived we set off for the fair grounds. The fair was in Gaithersburg, about a 40 minutes' drive from my house, and we got there at a perfect time in the early evening when the scorching hot of the day was past and the sun was beginning to set.

My first priority is always to visit the animal barns, so we took a lap around the grounds and arrived at the rows of stalls. Sheep, goats, cows, pigs, horses, even a barn full of fancy chicken breeds were all there to see and pet (and...smell.) We definitely ran into the Mongomery County Beekeepers' Association and of course I had to stop and talk about my dad's honey with them. We gobbled some fried dough and went on some silly rides. I felt like a little kid!

The fair was just the happiest place for a beautiful Saturday afternoon. There was live music and demonstrations, and little kids bounced everywhere eating cotton candy and holding - joy of joys - helium balloons, or better yet, some silly stuffed animal or glowing toy someone won for them. Community churches sold ice cream and cookies and turkey legs and ethnic food. You could find anything you wanted to eat or drink! We saw a guy swallow a sword and watched a pig race. Seriously, is there anything more carefree and ridiculous than watching a pig race?


As the afternoon faded to evening, Jason and I moved towards the game booths and tried our hand at winning some prizes. I had my eyes set on the goldfish booth, where the game was tossing a ping pong ball into one of many tiny fishbowls. On my very last shot, I sunk a ping-pong ball and won a fish! We took our prize and headed towards the last amusement of the night: The Ferris wheel.

Ending the night with the Ferris wheel was a great choice. The sun was setting and it was almost dark, so from way up in the air, all the lights of the fair glittered and you could see for miles. The weather had cooled down and great music drifted up. It was a perfect end to a fantastic day.


Now, it's back to the grind. My poor goldfish didn't make it even 24 hours alive. Let's hope I do a little better than he did this week!

Peace and love.

Still Processing the Holy Land

I've been back from Israel now for 2 whole weeks, and I still find my mind spinning from the experience. I hope many of you had a chance to look at my pictures and read the mini- stories that I put in the captions.

The REALITY experience wasn't meant to be a one-and-done deal for the participants. We're now part of a network that we can continue to access to help us with our professional and spiritual growth. And, in classic TFA style, our trip leaders and coordinators are making us do a lot of reflecting on the trip, how it may have shaped our values, and how it is influencing our professional decisions.

One of my favorite leadership exercises on the trip was a session we did profiling the greatest qualities of some political leaders in the Bible. We did what you might call a "case study" on the book of Exodus: What did it take to move an entire nation out of slavery against the wishes of the most powerful king in the world, mobilize them, journey them across the desert, reestablish their culture and identity, and establish a new nation? Thinking about that in a modern business mindset is kind of shocking! What would that look like today? And who did it back then? We looked at the 4 big guys involved in that project and what made them special:

1. Moses: He's our visionary, but let's face it. Buddy wasn't really popular. He stuttered, he was always yelling at everybody, and sometimes he'd tromp off to a mountain and hang out there for more than a month to figure stuff out and talk to clouds and bushes. People could not have been confident in a guy like that, but you have to hand it to him- he had a vision, and he stuck to it.

2. Aaron: Made life a lot better for old Mos' by being the great communicator. The people loved him and he made it all make sense for them with great speeches and fabulous rhetoric. Can't say he was very deep: he let the vision slip as soon as Moses was gone and he was in charge (golden calf anyone?) But even though he slipped up, the journey would have been impossible without his instructions.

3. Miriam: When things are tough and a vision is starting to feel impossible, someone on your team has to be the optimistic cheerleader. Miriam did a lot of singing and dancing, she cheered the people up and kept their spirits going. She was the USO of the wandering tribes, you could say. Without good morale, can any any leadership challenge succeed?

4. Josh: This guy kept the books. He organized the tribes and set people on the right path. He probably figured out the best ways for manna distribution and the like, but the bible skips that part. We do know he was essential for the logistics of the operation, and even though he wasn't super cheery or had any kind of ground-breaking ideals, we learn from him that pragmatism is key to undertaking any huge venture.

Since I've been back to work and starting what is presumably going to be my career, I've been giving a lot of thought to who in that group of four I most relate to, and how the other people in my office and life fill those different roles. I've been thinking about different leaders I've worked with in my and what qualities made them successful. I've also been doing a lot of thinking about when they needed help, and what things I need the most help with. Who, from that Exodus case study, do you most relate with?

Deep thoughts for a Sunday night. Next week should be a crazy one at work. I'll have lots to tell about what it's like to write a proposal for Bill Gates! I'll be calling on my inner-Josh so I don't lose track of the disgusting amount of paperwork that I'll be handling.

Peace and Love.

Israel

... Is better told through pictures. So visit my album, where instead of a long, long blog entry, I've broken down my trip in captioned bits.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100170805526206.2524437.5515657&l=068d3f21b5&type=

That should be open to viewing by all.
If the link doesn't work, let me know!

Peace and love,
Tori