Autumn, wherefore art thou?

And by autumn I mean cold weather. Leaves are changing, the days are getting shorter, there's Christmas ornaments bigger than I am in the aisles of Costco, and it's still in the mid-60's. Is this normal? This time of year in college was marked by sleep deprivation and midterms and spending marching band rehearsals squinting suspiciously at the fall colors creeping down the mountainsides because they were the forerunners of the snow and I knew it was just a matter of time before my horn would freeze solid. This year I put on pants and a jacket to go shopping because I assume it will be a bit nippy and then I nearly sweat to death walking out of the lobby doors. I was out looking for new boots on Thursday (under the assumption that someday I will want good cold weather footwear because it will actually be cold) and came across a crew putting up an outdoor ice rink--complete with a zamboni laying down some ice. It was nearly 70 that morning. It hasn't even approached freezing at night. So I have to wonder how they expect to keep the ice there as ice instead of the world's shallowest swimming pool. Liquid nitrogen? Giant cold packs? Frost giants? At least warm weather allows lots of activities. I've discovered a rooftop balcony that faces south where I can go read in the sunshine when I feel like getting outside. I may just live there until it gets too cold.

In other news, Mike's been happy to live in a place that has a professional basketball team and has picked out games he wants to go see. We went to a Wizards/Spurs game on Wednesday and it was a lot of fun. Mike enjoyed watching the game (even though we were in the nosebleeds of the nosebleed section) and I enjoyed the people watching. Also the cheese fries we had at dinner. Mmmmm.

Friday we went to an ice cream social for the LDS people in Mike's training class. One of the class supervisors is LDS, so he and his wife make it a point to gather the LDS trainees together once training is over to mingle and ask and answer questions specific to being LDS in the Foreign Service. In those situations I always feel like I'm in the center of a venn diagram: Here's the circle containing all the FS people, here's the one with the LDS people, and here you are at the intersection. It seems to be a fairly small world out there. But it's also filled with nice people, from what I can see, so that's ok. Everyone at the party was fun to talk to and very complimentary of the maple cinnamon sunburst I brought to share (because I am a vain, vain person and I choose my desserts based solely on how impressive they are--and also because that one is super awesome). It looks like my evil plan of buying peoples' love with carbs is working. Mwa ha ha.

Cheers,

Mrs. Hawsmo

Aaaand we're back!

Sorry for the delay. I was waiting for A) the opportunity to completely take over and redecorate the blog (mwahahaha...I mean, thanks Jenny!) and B) moving to the new apartment. Both have duly been accomplished, so now I have no more reasons to procrastinate. Except procrastination in general. But I'm working on that. So, without further ado, here's some of our recent adventures!

The anticipation was killing me!

• Flag Day: Mike took it all in stride. I was torn between feeling nauseous and getting the shakes all morning. All the family members of the new hires were invited to come be nervous together as they announced our fates. I think the people in charge must enjoy watching people have heart palpitations because they announced all the posts by saying the location, the specialty (like facilities or IT or security) and THEN the person's name. But it did bring into sharp relief whether or not I really wanted to go somewhere. There were a few places I was surprised to find I really didn't want to get posted. But when our turn finally came...
• We found out we're going to China! Of all the guesses I collected, Bentley, Ruby, and Kylie were the closest, so yay for you, little people!  I was surprisingly relieved and excited to find out that

  

  The flag took over
  our IKEA plant

  we're being posted to Shenyang. Mike's excited because he gets language training and therefore gets paid to learn Mandarin. Because of that we're going to be hanging around DC for a while longer than we would have originally, which is fine by me. DC is pretty great (and it's more time for people to come visit, HINT HINT).
• We moved to our permanent place, FINALLY. Originally we were going to be spending a week in a temporary apartment but it kept stretching longer and longer and we ended up being there a month. A month is a very long time to be in limbo and I am so so so glad it's over. And I really like the new place (possibly because a quarter of it is the kitchen, which is totally awesome). Now we're all moved in and unpacked and I can finally feel like we're living here instead of in some really weird vacation dream. 

  

  A Hyatt family, erm, portrait

• We took a spontaneous trip over Columbus Day weekend (because it's a federal holiday for no reason I can fathom, but hey, three day weekend!) and drove up to Connecticut to visit friends from Alabama who moved away from us in June, those heathens. Because they are super awesome they were excited when we called and asked if we could come invade with only a few hours notice and let us stay with them for three days. It was all sorts of fun to see them again. We ate LOTS of good food, played lots of games, and a good time was had by all. Thanks again, Hyatts.

The rest of life has been spent settling into life here. We're getting to know more people, finding out more about the neighborhood, and spending lots of money at Costco (we now live literally across the street and it's both a blessing and a curse). It's still surprisingly warm here, so walking to the store is an easy chore, and the leaves are starting to turn colors. I may never get over how gorgeous autumn is in a place with real seasons. 

Cheers,

Mrs. Hawsmo

Hawsmo Abroad, 2.0

Hello all. In light of the fact that Mike decided to join the Foreign Service and I was (somehow) willing to go along with that, I've decided to resurrect this blog to record our adventures. We're not very abroad yet, although after living in Alabama, DC does kind of feel like a foreign country. (Maybe like paradise. I mean, I can walk to Costco and the library AND there's an enormous geology exhibit just a Metro ride away. Definitely paradise.) For instance, this is the view from our apartment window:

The pokey bits in the foreground are the mall parking garage. The Washington Monument is on the right, and the Pentagon is the hugely massive building taking up the rest of the space.

It's been a crazy week since we got here. Mike has been at Orientation (brainwashing) for the Foreign Service most of the time. I've been bouncing around the apartment and surrounding environs, exploring the neighborhood and going into raptures about Costco and the Sur La Table just up the street. I also had an orientation day myself, where they told us spouses all about things I'd never thought to worry about until now, like malaria and how much peanut butter you need to pack for a two year tour in Africa (these concerns are apparently of equal importance).

Last Tuesday the powers that be handed out the bid list for available postings--and no, I can't tell you what the options are, if I did I'd have to kill you--and it suddenly hit me that this is REAL and we're in it for good. And then I freaked out. Mike, being Mike, did nothing of the sort, and we've spent the days since then researching possible posts and weighing pros and cons like we actually had enough information to make a real decision, and also as if our decision would impact anything at all. Basically, we get to rank the available postings from "yes please send us here" to "over my dead body", and then the people in charge send us wherever they need us. We have to submit our list tomorrow morning, and then we'll find out where exactly we're going next Wednesday (so get your guesses in before then!). It's both exciting and pants-wettingly terrifying, so mostly I try to think about other things.

So! Now that the blog is up and running again, what would you like me to write about? What would you like to hear about our increasingly bizarre life? I will do my best to provide basic information and tell funny and interesting stories, but if there are specifics you want, please ask for them. I'll try to deliver (unless it's classified, which is something I never ever thought I would  say and makes me feel like I'm in some bad spy movie).

Cheers!

Mrs. Hawsmo