Introductions all around

So I moved into my home-away-from-home this afternoon. It's a great old house, I'd say about 100, 120 years old? It's got a friendly red door on the outside and a spectrum of richly colored paints on the inside. But even better than the paint job is the family who inhabits it. Here's the rundown:

Cindy Morgan-Jaffe: Woman of the house, mother to three grown children--Anna, Claire, and Rose--and parent to the twins. She owns a software company and a moped. She is originally from Wyoming, so she knows how it is to be a Westerner in the big city.


Tanya Renney: The other woman of the house, biological mother to the twins. She's got Western connections, too, with family in Livingston and some cousins in Helena. She recently built a greenhouse onto the side of the house, which is now home to two tortoises. She also loves to cook, so I will keep you updated on the epicurean side of things as well.

Clara: The au pair from Brazil. I haven't really talked to her much yet, but I do know she has been in DC for 6 years and that she is very good at french braiding hair.

Paul: One half of the twins, he plays the cello and has recently enrolled in acting classes. He is very blond and very blue-eyed and sometimes goes by the alias "the Swede". He is not Swedish. He does, however, love Harry Potter and the back yard and being 8.

Olivia: The other half of the twins. She plays the violin and often sports the french braids in her hair that are the handiwork of Clara. She is starting to think boys are not quite so gross as they used to be, but still not worth her time. She likes horses, of course, and hiding behind the sofa to avoid bath time.

Sanji: The aging pitbull of the house. Very sweet, but please don't let her out the front door as she has a tendency to run off

Hannah: A mutt, part basset and part something else. She is low and stubby and shaggy, with one ear that goes up and one that goes down and a tail that goes all directions at once.

Study up, there WILL be a quiz.

Natty Hist

After an uneventful train ride--marked, however, by the first time I have ever been in New York City (or below it)-- I arrived safely in Washington, D.C. I took a taxi to Peter and Jessica's and promptly settled in to the spare room. I spent my first full day in the city cruising around on the metro and wandering aimlessly through the Museum of Natural History and the American History Museum.

I'm doing much of the same today, riding around town, trying to get used to being just another drop in a sea of 600,000.

First Impressions: Everyone in DC has incredible front yards, and it's not half as scary as I expected.

I'll upload the few photos that I took when I get the proper cord for my camera. Until then, I leave it up to your collective imaginations.

EDIT: Here are a few photos from my first day in DC

A prime example of lush DC front gardens :

A pair of foxes at the Natural History Museum:

Any my favorite, the bull elephant in the front hall:

D.C. Bound!

So BIG NEWS here at the Worcester outpost. It turns out that the NPR internship that I applied for back in July, that I didn't get... well, I got it. Someone had to cancel at the last minute, and they called me up (why is it I am never anyone's first choice?). So I've spent the last two days frantically planning my trip down there, searching for housing, and in general freaking out about my move to the Big City.

I've been keeping the phone lines open to the Montana Headquarters, staying in touch with M&D while I figure all this out. My father is always full of such sage advice. This morning, he reassured me with the following:

"You know, Annika, all these things always seem bigger than they really are. You're just going to DC. A lot of other girls your age"--here I thought he would say something like dating dead-ends, or working at McDonalds, things to make me seem awesome by comparison for having ventured into the wide world--"are packing to go to bootcamp and getting deployed to Iraq."

Oh. Well great, Dad, how can I follow that act? I thought a lot of other girls my age were getting jobs and internships and trying to figure out where they belong in the world, too. Now my brain is just overrun with images of me landing in fatigues and dust on a wide avenue of downtown DC, fresh from the helicopter. Cut to a scene of me crouching behind a pile of construction debris eating rations out of a can, a look of war-weariness on my dirt-smeared face. Of course there will be the requisite reading of letters from home and lovelorn notes from my beau. Insert sweeping Michael Bay music and machine gun noises here.

Dad's parting words were much more reassuring: "You'll be fine, just stay away from congressman."

Dundun, dundun *ominous music*

So, according to BBC science news, which I happened to be skimming this morning, four great white sharks were tagged this weekend just off of Cape Cod. And guess where I just sent my uncle for an end of summer vacation... They announced the beaches will be closed for the rest of the weekend, and I instantly had flashes of a disasterously short-sighted mayor talking to chief Brody and striped swimtrunks and gnawed limbs. Although, I like to think that New Englander (New English?) sharks might be more well-mannered. Or, on second thought, if they are Red Sox fans, they're probably all tools.

La Tamalera Mas Guera

A nice chill day today in Worcester, MA, where I have been for the past few days. Laura and I walked down to starbucks for some refreshing drinkies, followed by a shopping spree at the Goodwill, where I found my wedding dress--now all I need is a fella!--and then headed back up the hill, where I promptly made a bucket of tamales.

About Damn Time

Alright, I'm not famous for having regular blog updates. So, after about a year, I present to you:

FINALS WEEK!
I have my first exam in a couple of hours. Wish me luck!

The Cold

After a snowy start to Matt's arrival--we were planning to head back Saturday morning with Greer, but the crazy over-night snowstorm put us back to the afternoon with Erin--we arrived home all in one piece.

It's a lot colder in Helena than it is in Missoula. Mother said that this morning it was -24 when she got up. I wasn't awake for that, thank goodness, having chosen instead to sleep in until a sensible, warmer hour. Like Noon.

Also, this morning, we discovered that the strange popping/snapping noise we heard least night was one of the windows in the living room cracking, it was THAT COLD.

And now I'm down in the basement, several layers deep in clothing, cleaning my old room and building a nest to sleep in and listening to music. I might have to kidnap Ruby from upstairs and use her as a heater later. I'm sure she'll love that.