School's out!

It's the last day of school! Granted, Jason has to go back in the fall, but I am done! Finished! For the first time in seventeen years, I will not be in a classroom this September. Weird.

After my idyllic run this morning, we went to class. I was surprised; sometimes the last class of the semester is weird as the professor tries to pull together what you've studied during the last four months in a complete and meaningful way. Dr. Goodliffe's lesson was really great, though. I like that class here is only an hour.

In the afternoon, Jason worked on his paper and I cleaned/packed. Then we went out to dinner with the Holbeins at Panera and came home to pack some more. I think we're finished for now; our check-out is tomorrow morning at 9 and all we have left is cleaning the tub and packing up our last stuff (blowdrier, toothbrushes, etc.). Then it is off to Utah! Our flight leaves at 1:15 p.m. and we supposedly arrive at 4:15 p.m.

Beautiful morning

I accidentally got up early this morning and didn't want to go back to sleep, so I ran to the Lincoln Memorial. It's only a mile, and I arrived around 7:20 a.m. No tourists had arrive yet and the sun was just peeking around the Washington Monument. I could see the Capitol dome and the Library of Congress; it was stunning. I walked around for a little while and just thought about the wonderful experiences we've had out here over the past three and a half months. As I was leaving, I took a great picture on my phone, which of course will have to just stay on my phone forever, as I can't ever sync it with my computer. Anyway, ask to see it and I will show it to you. On the way back, I ran past my Uncle Charlie, which was an odd coincidence.

I'm so glad to have had that experience. It seemed like the perfect way to start our last day in DC.

Last day

Wow, today was kind of a tough day! I didn't think I would feel so torn about leaving my internship. Jason was also sad to leave. We both had busy/productive last days. Jason's supervisor took him out to eat at Rock Bottom (which we like a lot) and I went to Good Stuff Eatery with some of my co-workers. I tried Michelle's Melt and it may be my new favorite! Yum. I also sampled the toasted marshmallow shake for the first time: so rich, but so delicious.

So I was just searching for a photo of the toasted marshmallow shake and discovered its recipe online! There is also a recipe for the Obamaburger! Thank you, Oprah, for sharing!

We went out to dinner with Jason's old roommate Chad tonight, which was a lot of fun. He drove us home from Alexandria, which was also surprisingly fun; the monuments are so beautiful at night. I am glad we haven't had a car out here, but it might be nice to know what some parts of the area look like above ground.

Now I'm kind of cleaning and Jason is writing his paper for tomorrow. I can't believe we'll turn in the last assignments of our undergraduate careers in approximately nine hours! It's incredibly strange/satisfying. Only one more day of posting on this blog and then the Frosts will not be in Washington anymore. I've started another blog for us; this one's not private, so you won't need a password to access it. It's http://thefrostsgotokentucky.blogspot.com. Creative, I know. I tried to think of something creative with "Frosts" and "Bluegrass State," but it was a lost cause.

Second-last day of work

Both of us had really busy days at work today. It's rough trying to get everything finished after only a few months at a job! After work, we met our friends, the Holbeins, at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We went to the Wizards vs. Pacers game afterward (thank you, Holbeins!) and then came home to do more homework!!

Tomorrow we are having dinner with Jason's ex-roommate Chad and will probably continue our cleaning/homework-doing.

Two days worth of update

I forgot to write Monday OR Tuesday. Here are the fun things we've been up to:

Paper writing!

We are both writing hard on our portfolios and final research papers. They've got to be turned in by Friday, so we are working hard and fast.

Rob Bishop Lecture

Last night was the Barlow Center Lecture Series, a once-a-semester evening when they invite a guest speaker to talk to the BYU students (and anybody else who's interested in coming). His address was very scripture-heavy and I'm not sure I 100% agree with what he said. The talk was followed by desserts, though, so no complaints.

Eating the last of our food

We have eaten macaroni and cheese for the last two dinners. Thankfully, as a reward for our sacrifice, we are going to The Cheesecake Factory with our across-the-hall neighbors tonight. Afterward, we're heading to the Wizards v. Pacers game, so that should be fun.

Enjoying our last few days of work

Jason's office loves him, so they are taking him out to lunch on Thursday. Everyone in my office forgot I was leaving so soon and scheduled the intern breakfast with the Senator after I have gone. It will not be rescheduled.

That's all for now. I'll try to remember to post more diligently.

Sunny Sunday

This morning, we loaded up the Frosts with stuff to take back to Connecticut for us. They are really awesome; we're so grateful that they were willing to come down in January to set us up AND to come back to pick it all up this weekend. It was so fun to have them here! We miss you guys already!

We went to Old Town Alexandria today. It's kind of a fun little downtown; we walked all the way to the river and forgot to take any pictures. The weather was 100% perfect, which was very nice. Tonight we had tasty burritos for dinner and have eaten a ton of saltwater taffy. Not good...

I think that is all of our news for right now.

Our camera is cooler than anticipated.

Our camera actually used to be just my camera in the days before I shared everything. Now it is the Frost family camera and, it turns out, the thing is amazing.

I (yes, I, Amanda, not Jason!) took this picture at Union Station today! I spent a while this morning fiddling around with the special effects settings. I guess this is for if you are too lazy to use Photoshop, but I like it anyway.

Jason took the following wonderful photo (check out my coy blushing...okay, my cheeks are just permanently red and the "color accent" feature picked up on it) at the Marriott this morning.

Our Internet, however, is not amazing, which is why I can't finish loading today's pics. (Update: the Internet randomly began to work a little later).

Today was a fantastic day! We met Mom and Dad Frost for the best non-home-cooked breakfast in the world at the Marriott in Bethesda. After breakfast, we went into town on the Metro and went on a tour of the Capitol! We returned to Bethesda and ate at Rock Bottom, the restaurant where we ate with Jake and Dave when they were here over Christmas. Their presence was sorely missed :) Can little smiley faces like that stand in as punctuation? I feel weird writing :)., because then it looks like my little smile--intended to soften sarcasm or wry wit--has a facial deformity. Oh well.

After dinner, we went to see the temple. I imagine I've probably seen the Washington D.C. temple in person before, but I don't remember such an experience. I do remember a picture of it hanging on my bedroom wall when I was little and thinking that it was probably the most beautiful building in the world. As soon as we saw it through the trees tonight, my heart did a little leap; it really is a stunning building!
When I was younger, I thought I might want to get married in the D.C. temple because my parents did. Interestingly, Jason's parents got married there too! What are the odds!

I love the temple.

See (many of) you soon!

Good news and a visit from the Frosts!

Good news of today: Dave received his mission call! He is going to the Quezon City mission in the Phillipines! He goes into the MTC on July 14th. Congratulations bro!Jason's parents came down today; it was so nice to see them! We had a rough time in traffic, but it was nice to have some time to talk. We had fried chicken for dinner. When Mom and I picked up the food, the cashier asked if we would like it to stay or to go. "Yes, the two of us plan to eat 14 pieces of chicken, 7 biscuits, french fries, coleslaw, and a gallon of soda." Yes, a gallon of soda. This is what a gallon of soda looks like:
I got to fill up the bag myself at the soda fountain and got some strange looks from other customers. I've never seen soda in a pouch before.

Here are some other pictures that I've been meaning to post.

Me with the cherry blossoms!

The Jefferson Memorial with the cherry blossoms.

The Washington Monument with the cherry blossoms.

The lovely flowers I received for giving a stellar tour. It's been a good day.

I almost forgot to write about our briefings! We heard from a really interesting guy in the morning; he is an Iranian blogger who talked about why the United States should care about democracy in Iran. He was engaging and interesting. Our second briefer was Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform. He was really sarcastic/irritating/dismissive. I expected him to be at least semi-reasonable...not so. One of the other employees there spoke for a few minutes after Mr. Norquist left, and he was more polite and logical (for the most part). It was kind of a frustrating experience.

Well, it's been a bit of a long day, so we are turning in. Tomorrow is just one week until we are back in Utah!

I so much do not want to write my paper.

I only have 105 more words, but it's 11:36 p.m. and I am beat. Perhaps I will finish tomorrow. Perhaps not.

Our blog is very narrative-heavy and not very thought-heavy, so here are some thoughts.

I am so excited to be moving to Kentucky. I'm nervous that I won't be able to find a job and that I won't make any friends, but that fear is tiny compared to the volume of my excitement! Jason is going to do great; I may be biased, but he is so smart and capable. Grad school should be an awesome experience for him.

Sometimes I can't believe I ended up with such an amazing husband. It seems impossible that we have been married for almost an entire year. From the very beginning, when Jason met my parents at Hannah's prom (which is weird), I was surprised by how well he fit in with my family; it is almost like he's never not been around. I like to think I fit into his family too, because I sure like them a lot.

I love DC a lot, but today I had an overwhelming desire to drive somewhere far away from civilization and be alone (not totally alone; Jason can come with me). I miss the mountains and being able to sit in almost complete silence and just think. Wilderness is good for my mental health.

Enough. I'm finishing those last 105 words.

Homework night with the Frosts

Good thing we just ate ice cream, or I might be a little bit sad about the sheer volume of homework we have yet to do. Instead, I am choosing to not think about it. Unhealthy? Possibly, but I just want to uninhibitedly enjoy this last weekend in DC and our time with Jason's parents (who arrive tomorrow! Hurray! I'm so glad I like my in-laws!).

I forgot to write about the highly important task I completed yesterday: picking up the Senator's prescription. Who knew there was a Capitol pharmacy? Not I.

The most exciting thing that happened to me was that I received flowers at work! Florists are not allowed to bring flowers into the office, so staffers must go out to the curb, pick them up, and bring them back to the office. I'm not sure why that procedure exists, but it does. Anyway, our office received a call from a florist saying there was a delivery for "Abigail Frost and Julia Engar" (Julia is the front desk receptionist who schedules tours. She is awesome). The receptionist figured they probably meant "Amanda" (and Julia wasn't in today) so I was enlisted to pick up the gift. The arrangement was HUGE (I took a picture, but haven't uploaded it yet) and had come from the tour group I took last week as a demonstration of their appreciation. Not a bad way to start a Thursday...

Let's see...I took another tour around this afternoon and came home from work around 5:30 p.m. It's rainy here now, which has caused some problems because our air conditioning doesn't work, but rain comes inside when we open the windows.

To dispel any rumors that we eat well here, we had macaroni and cheese and frozen tamales for dinner tonight. Peas also--can't forget the peas. We're trying to eat the rest of our food before we go back to Utah. I think we may have to have a potluck feast the night before we leave with the rest of the Barlow-ites to dispose of the rest.

That's it for now. I have another 500 words to write about how I am going to change the world.

Did I mention...

...that last week I woke up at 1:00 a.m. and took a shower and started getting ready for work? I couldn't remember if I wrote about that when it happened, but if I didn't, I wanted to make sure I recorded such a strange moment for posterity.

Tonight Jason and I ate dinner with the Holbeins (our across-the-hall neighbors). The air conditioning in the Barlow Center is apparently not working, so we are roasting. We had curry for dinner which was delicious!

In other news, I got to go on a tour of the Pentagon today! We have an Air Force fellow at our office, so he took all the interns on a VIP tour. It was awesome. I expected the Pentagon to be far more industrial than it is; for some reason I thought the walls would be bare concrete...I guess I forgot that people actually work in there and might want the space to be aesthetically pleasing.

I think that's the update for today. In case you don't know (and most of you already do, I'm sure), Jason's brother Dave's mission call is waiting in Orem! We are so excited to hear where he is going. My official guesses (stateside and international) are Seattle and Portugal. Jason's guess is Quebec (he doesn't get a stateside guess so that I can increase my chances of winning!).

Adios!

Lovely Tuesday

Highlights of today (clearly in no particular order):

1. I talked to Roni online for a few moments this morning.

2. Jason had a great day at work.

3. We are listening to the UConn basketball game a.k.a. the NCAA final.

4. We had delicious gnocchi for dinner.

5. Today's temperature was in the 80s. I ate lunch outside in the glorious sun. When I went inside, I had little blossoms stuck in my hair. I was still finding them when I left work.

6. I gave a tour and it went well, despite a stroller. I have never dealt with a wheeled vehicle before, but located the elevators quite handily. Thank you, Capitol tour training!

7. Tomorrow I get to go on a tour of the Pentagon.

8. We received an invitation today for the Barlow Center Prom. It made me laugh aloud.

9. We are going to eat mint ice cream soon (or at least, so I have been told).

10. A cool breeze is blowing in through our open window. I love warm evenings.

11. I finished an awesome book called Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. I always thought I was a voracious reader until I met Jason, who constantly out-reads me. Thanks to a thirty-five minute commute, I have been able to read a ton on this trip. I just finished Northanger Abbey (for which Jason taunted me. He doesn't appreciate a good Jane Austen). I had pretty low expectations, but it was great! I think it's amazing how Jane Austin, writing in the early nineteenth century, can so accurately capture human (more particularly, female) nature. Awesome. I highly recommend it.

Exciting news!

We have an apartment in Kentucky and we can move in on May 10, 2010. Things are shaping up quite nicely; we're still waiting on the whole job thing, but that will work out too. Tonight we took a long walk around the FDR memorial and the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms: 3.4 miles total! It was pretty warm still (it's 82 degrees outside right now), but the sun was setting and we got some nice pictures.

I get to leave work at 5:30 p.m. for the rest of the week, which is exciting! What will I do with my extra hour and a half (total).

We have papers due at the end of the week about how we would change the world (through government) if we could. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! I was pretty stoked to write about changing Human Rights Day in Utah to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but guess what! Someone (also known as the Utah State Legislature) beat me to it in 2000. Alas.

Happy Easter!

This is the only picture that will load for some reason, so enjoy it. These are our non-award-winning eggs (the "Egg-o-maniac" and "Pinky") at the Easter party on Friday. Wait! Another picture loaded as well. This is a bench at Arlington National Cemetery. I wish the other pictures had loaded. Oh well.

Today we watched General Conference at my Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Bruce's house in Maryland. It was nice to be in a real house for a few hours. We had this amazing angel food cake with strawberries and ice cream for dessert after the second session. Yum. Kathleen also sent us home with some beautiful daffodils, which have brightened up our apartment considerably. Now we're just chilling at home.

2 more weeks.

Two weeks from this minute (14 days=336 hours=20,160 seconds=a fortnight) we will be back in Utah. This is unsettling; our brief time here has gone by way too fast.

We watched General Conference today in the comfort of our tiny apartment and had delicious fajita soup for lunch and dinner with Trader Joe's cornbread. Yum. Jason went to the priesthood session with our neighbor, John, during which John's wife Brittney and I went shopping in Georgetown. We also ate frozen yogurt (delicioso!) and watched the Food Network when we returned. Since none of the Barlow Center boys were home, we had complete TV jurisdiction; it took us an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to turn it on, though. Someone had been watching a movie or something, so we had to turn on the satellite box itself...I don't know. Whatever it was, it took an inordinate amount of time to turn it on. The boys returned around 11:00 p.m. and now we're thinking about turning in. Tomorrow we are going to Aunt Kathleen's for conference, and then are coming back for dessert with our neighbors.

It's eighty degrees outside!

Quick recap of our Friday:

1. We went to the grocery store!

2. We went to Arlington National Cemetery (pictures to follow soon)!

3. We went to an Easter party, which included an egg-smashing contest. Neither of us were particularly effective, and were eliminated in the first round.

4. We have been married for 11 months!

That's all for now. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow in between Conference sessions.

Look who came to see us!

I know my mom and dad came almost two weeks ago and that I've already written a little bit about their trip, but I finally loaded some pictures (using the downstairs computers at the Barlow Center)!!

This is right after we went to the Supreme Court. Note the glorious weather. (FYI: tomorrow is supposed to be eighty degrees! I hear there is snow in Utah...)
Here we are on the east side of the Capitol.Mom and me!

Mom and Dad riding the awesome underground train from the Senate office buildings to the Capitol. This is not an April Fool's Day joke; there is really an underground train. It's awesome.

On the second full day of their visit, we went to the National Mall and checked out some of the monuments. This is from the new World War II Memorial.

Jason's artistic picture of the dome. I like it.

Jason, Mom, and me at the WWII Memorial.

I guess they picked a good week for protests! Here's the first one; it was kind of a "pick your cause" march, where people carried signs about peace, war, schools, health care, and an array of other hot-button issues.

Police on ponies monitoring the protesters.

The next day, we went to Capitol Hill after stake conference. This is before we ran into the hoards of peaceful marchers.

Another artsy photo of the dome.

Jason and I went and hung out with the pro-health care folks (Catholics for Health Care, specifically) for a while (they seemed less violent than the Tea Partiers). At one point, a woman asked Jason where she could get some water because he looked like "a Washington-type who was in charge."

Kind of a cool shot of the Capitol.

We thought there were a lot of health care protesters...until we went to the west side of the Capitol and discovered many thousands of immigration marchers. This is where our trip got really interesting.

Doesn't Jason look all Congress-y here? That's what all the protesters thought!

"Did you vote yet?"

More Capitol. Beautiful building!

Congressman Frost, Mom, and I near a pretty Magnolia tree. At least, I think it was a Magnolia tree.

I really like this picture. I wish I looked like I had hair, though.

This is looking up at the Capitol from the mall after the marchers had moved to the other side. You can still see some of the set-up from the pre-march activities. We also got to hear a rendition of "This Land is Your Land" in Spanish. If you want to hear it, talk to my Dad!

I'm glad to finally have these pictures posted. We sure had a great time with my parents (and with just Dad the next week) and are looking forward to seeing Jason's Mom and Dad in a week! We'll be home in 17 days and then we can see all the rest of you also!

I feel like I should have put up some hilarious April Fool's Day joke on our blog. Oh well.

I forgot to write that I saw the Vice-President's motorcade on Tuesday.

Good news & Gettysburg/Harper's Ferry

It's been a long time since we've updated the blog, so here is the exciting news:

JASON IS GOING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY!

Other exciting news:

JASON WAS AWARDED A FELLOWSHIP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY!

This means tuition is going to be cheaper than we thought. Hurray!

Here is the letter awarding him the fellowship.

Pretty darn exciting, huh?

The only noteworthy thing I did today was wake up, take a shower, look at the clock and realize it was 1:00 a.m. and I'd only gotten one hour of sleep, and go back to bed. I'm not sure why I did that. It was pretty bizarre.

In other news, we went to Gettysburg and Harper's Ferry on Saturday with our Washington Seminar group. We left around 6:40 a.m. (too early!). We first went to the visitor's center, where we saw a pretty cool museum exhibit, an explanatory film, and the cyclorama. Yes, cycl-o-rama! It's a giant, 360 degree painting of the battlefield.

Afterward, we went on a tour of the battlefield. This is a field.

This is a giant tower, built in 1890. We climbed all 121 stairs to the top and took some pictures.

Jason looks so tiny next to it!

Here is Jason at the top of the tower overlooking the Gettysburg battlefield. FYI: This battlefield was much cooler than Valley Forge and we didn't have to stay at a crazy America Camp during a snowstorm this time.

The Frosts at the top of the rameumptum...I mean, giant observation tower.

Jason looking pensieve on the battlefield. I tried to take a couple of candid pictures, but he looked sad in all of them.

Me by the Eternal Flame of Peace. You may be interested to know that the natural gas flame was extinguished during the energy crisis of the 1970s.

After our Gettysburg tour, we went to General Pickett's Buffet for lunch. It certainly wasn't Chuck-a-rama, but the macaroni and cheese was half decent.

We drove to West Virginia and stopped at Harper's Ferry, site of John Brown's anti-slavery uprising.

This is a train.

Me overlooking the town and the Shenendoah (or perhaps the Potomac?)

Harper's Ferry is right in the middle of the Appalachian Trail.

The Frosts at Jefferson's Rock. Supposedly Thomas Jefferson visited this rock and spoke highly of its great view when he returned to Washington.

Me on the footbridge next to the train tracks.

This is below the railroad. Jason is quite the photographer.

When we got back, we hurried over to the Jazz vs. Wizards game. The Jazz won by a lot (thirty points or something)!

That's about it for now. I gave a tour to our neighbor's parents today, which was fun. Tomorrow we are having our friend Mitch over for dinner. We'll try to post some pictures from my parents' visit tomorrow!

Last week recap

So...I had all sorts of good intentions about posting pictures from the last week. However, something is wrong with the internet or blogger or my browser; for some reason, the pictures won't load normally and look like this:
Yep, our disembodied heads visited the Supreme Court. I like how you can see my arm and hand also.
Here is a lovely one of my mom and I with multi-colored faces.
I'll try to get this worked out so I can post some excellent-looking pictures; we took pretty great ones. For now, I will do a written recap.

Thursday
Mom and Dad flew into BWI in the afternoon. Jason and I metroed out to my Aunt Kathleen's house to see them and Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Bruce.
Friday
We all met up at the Supreme Court for class. Afterward, we got to see the room where cases are argued. I think this was one of my favorite Fridays. Following class, we went to Good Stuff Eatery for a Barack-a-burger (just kidding! It's really called an Obamaburger. Poor Mom!) and onion rings. My stomach is growling just thinking about it. FYI: if anyone else wants to come visit us soon, we'll go there with you.
After lunch, we went on a tour of the Capitol. My parents went to the McClellands for dinner and to see Sara's fam and Jason and I watched basketball with other marrieds of the Barlow Center.
Saturday
Jason and I had to go to a service project at 7:15 a.m. It took an hour and a half to get to the food bank, where we loaded one-pound units of dry pinto beans into plastic sacks. Our group worked hard and fast--too fast, actually, for the administrators of the food bank to keep up with. We finished around 9:30 and were excited to get back. Little did we know that a delayed bus (thank you, marathon!) extended our home-bound trip to two hours. We met up with my parents and had some lunch before heading to the WWII memorial. That evening, we watched the second round BYU basketball game at my parents' hotel.
Sunday
We hit up stake conference in the McLean ward, where the stake president was released. Afterward, we went to the capitol and listened to some of the health care arguments in the House chamber. It was incredibly cool; we saw Jason Chaffetz, Jesse Jackson, and Speaker Pelosi! When we came out, we walked down the back side of the capitol where there were thousands of protesters marching up to the capitol. A bunch of people took pictures of Jason as we walked by, which seemed odd. We didn't realize what was going on, though, until a woman asked if he had voted yet. It turns out that as the only person on the national mall dressed in a dark blue suit and tie, he looked just like a Member of the House! It was crazy; everyone was staring at him and some guy thanked him for being there. It was hilarious.
I baked some macaroni and cheese for dinner (and I just have to brag for one second: it was cheddar/gouda/mozzarella/provolone/parmesan macaroni and cheese). Delicious.
Hopefully I'll get some pictures of our adventures loaded soon.