So I moved

Many of you know that I recently moved far away from the land of politicians, national monuments, and yes, Russian spies as neighbors. This was bound to happen at some point. I am, after all, a Midwestern girl at heart. And my husband is truly a Midwestern guy. This is where we belong. But I want to share all the fun that has happened.

Before we even moved, C’s best from the west came to spend our last few days in DC with us. We went to POV at W (cool location, way too cool for school though), we took the boat the Mt. Vernon (and bought a ton of wine and beer for our new place), and we went to a baseball game. What a great stadium!

Then, my husband and I packed up our stuff and trekked 18 hours west in my dad’s SUV with my dad and husband’s bestie (Thanks for helping us move!).

Good bye DC apartment!

Hello open roads!

We travelled through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and made our final stop in Iowa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SO once we finally made it to Iowa and unpacked our stuff in a storage unit, we moved in with my mother-in-law short-term to buy a car (we did!) and find an apartment (done!).

While staying with the MIL, my sweet 2-year-old nephew offered to drive me around in his awesome truck.

I declined. I’m not certain it’d be the best ride.

After we got our car and before we moved into our new place, we attended my cousin’s wedding (congrats!) and saw my sister and brother-in-law who live in Colorado (yay!).

Then we finally started to get settled into our place. We like it. And we’re so happy we get to be closer to family so we can be around for fun events. Like my baby brother being on the sophomore football team.

Or my sisters starting middle school (on Monday!).

And tomorrow we’re attending the Iowa State Fair. While we left the national monuments and (I hope) the Russian spies in DC, for now the politicians have followed us.

We really love being home again. I will certainly miss DC and most importantly all the great friends I made in DC. I love them all and hope to see them soon.

And hope they visit me in Iowa.

Exercising the freedom to assemble

While in DC, I’ve seen a lot of folks exercising the freedom to assemble and let the Government know their dissatisfaction. They are very interesting.

Starting with the perpetual protest in front of the White House. I’m not certain exactly, but I think it has to do with nuclear weapons. The tent with the yellow signs has been there for ever.

Then there are the quasi organized. The two pictures below show people protesting about workers rights and immigration. These two are at different times this past year, so it’s hard to know if they are related or the same group.

There are also the really organized, like this one for what I think was green jobs.

Or like this one organized by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

With the news on constituents jamming the phone lines on Capitol Hill and filling Congress’s Facebook pages (particularly on this debt issue), I wonder if in person protests are as effective when they are such small numbers. The marches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were effective partially because of numbers (and there were other factors).

I’d say if you want to protest, great! Let your voice ring out! But I’d say find the best medium for your message. A perpetual protest probably won’t really work the way intended.

Deficit, debt, and Washington

Last night, the President and the Speaker of the House spoke of the debt ceiling on prime time TV. According to my Facebook and Twitter feeds, this was not exactly what most people wanted to see (I guess the Bachelorette was on?).

So what is this debt thing? As President Obama said last night,

Understand –- raising the debt ceiling does not allow Congress to spend more money.  It simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that Congress has already racked up.  In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine.  Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it.  President Reagan did it 18 times.  George W. Bush did it seven times.  And we have to do it by next Tuesday, August 2nd, or else we won’t be able to pay all of our bills.

It just seems odd that the House and Senate committees continue pass budgets for future years and they just keep on spending money BUT they don’t want to take out the loans to pay the bills they have and continue to commit our Government to pay.

So no one really knows what will happen if the Government defaults on a debt because it hasn’t happened before. I have my own guesses (and it won’t stay localized to the Federal Government can’t pay it’s bills including Veterans benefits and Social Security benefits… it won’t be able to pay China back for the debt it holds). What’s even more telling in this situation is that the Federal bureaucrats don’t have policies and procedures in place for this type of event like they do if the budgets aren’t passed.

I just know that even I am sick of politics as usual. I want my elected representatives to figure out how to compromise like my husband and I do when I want to eat a fancy dinner out but we know we shouldn’t (or more important decisions like forgo buying a house until our student loan debts are a little lower).

I guess now we wait until August 2.

Food in DC: Trucks, Trucks, and more Trucks!

As we are wrapping up our time here in DC, I want to give a quick word on all the food that can make its way to your stomach via a truck.

The first and most obvious food truck is… well the food trucks. There are a ton of them in DC and they even have their own truck association so that they can be treated like normal businesses (just mobile ones). They all pride themselves on having super clean, health code-compliant work spaces. I’ve tried a few of them: Curbside Cupcakes, BBQ BUS, Sauca , and PI (and probably others I’ve forgotten). They were all pretty delicious. I liked the Christmas themed cupcakes we got at Christmas time. C and I tried the BBQ at Truckeroo. I tricked my co-worker into having PI deep-dish pizza and it was soooo delicious. Sauca’s food was tasty too.

Of course, that isn’t the only truck food comes in out here. There is also the grocery delivery service, Peapod. C and I tried it once about a year ago. It was terrific. All the produce was fresh and lasted days longer than the grocery store. You might ask why don’t we use it all the time. The reality for us was that you had to plan your grocery list at least a day or two before. Living in an apartment tower, we really needed to be home to have our groceries delivered (they are willing to leave it on your porch in a styrofoam cooler).

It’s been fun trying out grocery delivery and tasty food trucks. I hope to try a few more food trucks before we leave.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We’re all just immigrants, but Happy Independence Day anyway!!!

I was fascinated and excited with my paternal grandfather (Papa!) showed me the family history he researched. He discovered we’re related to Kings and Queens of England, Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery, American Presidents, and Fathers of the American Revolution.

My maternal side is a mix of Scandinavian and (probably) German. We grew up in a Lutheran Church with very Scandinavian foods (lutefisk, pickled herring, and lefsa) at our potlucks. I’d only eat the lefsa because it was served with butter, sugar, and cinnamon (yum!). Our family book (yes, we have a family book) details how part of my family came to America in the late 1800s. I can’t even conceptualize what it would mean to move your whole family to a new land and new country.

My husband’s family can very-definitively trace their roots to Dutch settlers. The whole little town in Iowa is still very Dutch (and they are very proud of it). They celebrate the tulips coming up in the spring. They have bakeries named names like Jaarsma (YAR-sma). And they even dance in wooden shoes (yes, even my mother-in-law has them).

While living in DC I’ve met and work with people who are newer immigrants coming from Germany, Ethiopia, Taiwan, and many other places.

Our country is fantastic for this reason. I mean there are many other reasons it’s fantastic, but I think the fact that a country exists where people can come here from anywhere and help create this great nation…. that’s just awe-inspiring.

I’ve learned so much from meeting so many different people. For example, yesterday C and I were at a barbecue. We got to see my colleague who is Ethiopian-American who brought long her husband and father. In chatting with her father, he commented how Ethiopians are the type of people who want to die where they are born. I joked that C and I must be part Ethiopian because that’s certainly the Mid-Western mentality too. Mid-westerners tend to stick close to home or eventually make their way back home and spend a life time there. So who knew that Iowans and Ethiopians had something so basic in common?

I’m proud to be American. And to say I’ve got a mixed heritage. But I live in a country where that’s totally normal and expected.

And so I thank our Fore Fathers (and Mothers) for making this country happen with our Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, my ancestors who decided to come here, the immigrants who continue to come and make this country great, and of course all those who have or currently serve to keep our country free.

Happy Independence Day!

The White House Farmer’s Market

I work near the White House and each year for the last few years there is the Farmer’s Market by the White House. I love getting fresh produce, delicious meats and cheeses, and crunchy breads from the vendors. In past years, it’s been a pretty traditional market, just in the middle of DC on a shut-down street near the White House. It happens every Thursday starting in May and goes through November!

This year there are a few new vendors this year including wood-fired pizza made on the spot! So I insisted that C come into DC for dinner one evening. Our first stop was the Pleasant Pop stand where we got popsicles. They were so tasty. They were made with local or organic ingredients and tasted very fresh.

Then we put in an order for our pizza. C got a lamb sausage pizza and I got tomato and mozzarella. Since they bake it on the spot, we had some time to kill. So we mosied down the street to pick up some kettle corn and some pumpkin cookies for way later. Once our delicious pizza was ready, we headed to the park in front of the White House and enjoyed the pizza. It was so tangy, salty, and just the right amount of sweet.

It’s so nice to be able to pick up some local produce on my way home and have an awesome salad. And who knows? Maybe I’ll bump into the First Lady!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Truckeroo!

So I’m in love with Food Trucks. They are so tasty. And there are so many. During the summer, they get together on the first Friday of the month at the baseball stadium and have a truck party they call Truckeroo.

C and I went earlier this month to try out all the tasty trucks I’ve been jonesing to have including CapMac (Mac and Cheese) and TaKorean (Korean style tacos) along with Curbside Cupcakes. Sadly, we only had Curbside Cupcakes which were tasty. We also got BBQBus for dinner. So yummy! I promise a much fuller update on all that is DC food trucks soon.

And if you’re DC July 15th (darn holidays messing up the schedule), stop by and try out some tasty food from a food truck!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.