I took PHA News one step further today and placed all the blurbs into Constant Contact. It was easier to use then I expected-it was neat!

PHA News consumed my day yesterday and today, so I am looking forward to get more stuff done next week. I helped staff volunteer night Wednesday so I was able to leave at 4 p.m. yesterday and today-and I believe yesterday’s events were a sign to never do it again!

I left work at 3:45 p.m. to make it to the 4:03 p.m. train and fell right before I made it to the train. By the time I was picked up and my stuff, I was able to make it to the MARC train’s platform just in time to see the train pull off. Literally, I was steps away from making it.

So there I was stuck in the train station bleeding, limping and with dirty clothes. I was furious. The next MARC train was not going to be there until 4:45 .m. and since I had to make it home by 5 p.m., the later MARC train was still faster than the Metro.

So I waited and waited … and the MARC train was then 15 minutes late and on the opposite platform due to a freight train ahead of it. Grr.

5:08 p.m. That is the time I made it to Rockville. It was just in time to pass my group heading to the Nationals-Phillies game. Caylah and I were planning to head to the baseball game with a bunch of TWC students and a RA that lived in our apartment building, however that did not happen obviously.

Still Caylah had dinner ready for me (she did not have to work-MPD has emancipation day off work) and we were able to get out the door and to the game just in time.

The game was awesome! Cay is a huge Phillies fan so of course I was for the Nationals … and who’s team won? Mine.

Heck yeah. It was the first win of the season for the Nationals, ending a nasty losing streak. Heck yeah!

Tonight, Cay and I are staying at Johnny’s to head out to Nicks-a country bar. Fun, fun.

I was technically behind the wipe out of my work’s home page yesterday after all. Apparently when I went to get the remote site’s copy of the home page, the server had it as I was putting the local file’s home page copy on the remote site = thus a blank page.

In all, my superviser said that while it was both my fault and hers- it technology wasn’t … it was just a computer glitch that just so happened while we were working on our web pages.

Thank goodness it was not completely my fault!!

In other news, I caught a cold while in Arkansas and I have yet to shake it off. It is making me miserable! It was especially not helpful during class tonight where we watched the 2-hour long video, “Enron: The Smartest Men In The Room.” It was pretty interesting, but the best part of class came at the end when our professor announced that there would be no class next week followed by an outdoor class (possibly to be held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial). I am excited!

I was the first to work on the home page today, and it was quite an ordeal. I went to upload the web version of the home page, and the page came back blank! There were no files! I was freaking out and just knew I was fired.

Turns out … it was not me!! This happened at 9:30 a.m., and our technical support said someone erased our home page at 7:55 a.m. I do not even have access until 9 a.m.-I was happy!
Thank goodness for backups. The problem was easily solved and I was able to finish updating the headlines on the home page, http://www.phassociation.org.

My roommates and I attended the Myers Briggs Type Indicator Assessment seminar and dinner tonight, which was for TWC students in my building alone that wanted to learn more about who they really are. I am a slight to moderate ISFJ.

I=Introversion
N=Intuition
F=Feeling
P=Perceiving

I have to admit-it was right on. I was reading the type profile for me and it hits me right on the head. It was an interesting perspective, especially since my roommates and I are on difference sides of the scales. Such as with Sheila, we discovered in the seminar that she is extraversion-she draw energy from being around people though she is cautious to disclose information. Meanwhile I am introversion-I draw energy from being by myself though I disclose information freely.

It was also interesting to note that I am very easy to manipulate-or persuade-and my roommates laughed and was quick to agree. I haven’t decided what I want to think on that one-though it does not really bother me.

Anyways, I did like my “characteristics frequently associated” with my ISFJs. Here’s mine:

” Quiet, friendly, responsible, and conscientious. Committed and stead in meeting their obligations. Thorough, painstaking, and accurate. Loyal, considerate, notice and remember specifics about people who are important to them, concerned with how others feel. Strive to create an orderly and harmonious environment at work and at home.”

I volunteered for the first time last night with Greater DC Cares. My night was spent at The Washington Home, a nursing home in Tenleytown, where I wheeled senior citizens downstairs to listen to music. It was the birthday of one man, Big Al, and his family brought dinner and a birthday cake to celebrate. So I was also handed out cake and dinner to the nursing home residents.

It was actually fun. I volunteered with two Australians, a 8-week pregnant woman who is in America with her former Army husband, and Sergio, who is a Navy lawyer. Sergio was pretty nice-he made sure the pregnant woman and I made it back to the metro safe and sound.

There was one resident that brought a smile to my face everytime- this older man who would always smile and talk to me about the music, which he did not like. I have to admit-he was right. It was a piano-saxophone duo, and the instrument playing was great. It was just the piano lady would butcher the songs.

Though interesting, the night did have its challenges especially when I was wheeling an older woman back to her room. She had no clue where her room was so I had to kindof guess the direction to go in until I found an employee to ask. There were also three Alzheimers residents who attended the event that we had to watch closely. We ended up assigning a volunteer to watch them specifically to ensure they did not wander away.

The night did not last long, but it was definitely worth it. I am probably going to go again sometime soon.

Sheila got lucky today: it snowed for her birthday allowing her to have the day off work. It was a gorgeous day outside today, if a little slick.

We decorated the apartment and gave her a photo album telling a “Once Upon A Time,” story of our TWC journey. I must say it was a great story since I was the one that wrote it to coordinate with the pictures. 😀

The Washington Center still hosted their Career Boot Camp today. I attended  “How To Get Noticed: Outstanding Resumes and Cover Letters” and “Negotiating Your First Salary.” They were both great seminars, especially the second one. We received copies of both powerpoints which contained multiple samples of every step we should follow in writing resumes and cover letters or in talking about salaries.

I must admit the salary seminar was the one I was most interested in-I had no clue what I was going to do for this area.

I got us lost.

Yes, my roommates Sheila and Caylah actually listened to me when I said I knew the way home during our walk around town today. We had opened the window blinds this morning to discover an insanely amount of snow on the apartment’s pool area and decided to scope out Rockville for possible playing-in-the-snow areas. All we discovered was that the snow was pratically non-existent except for what was near our pool area.

Still, the walk turned interesting as I pointed us in the wrong direction on accident, which we did not figure out until we were near the Interstate. It was a great walk, but was tiring after all the walking we did yesterday when we went to the Smithsonian Zoo and later into DC.

Once at the zoo, we got to see the red pandas, water cats, and cheetahs, which are near extinct according to a zoo sign. The pandas were roughhousing with each other when we saw them. One of the pandas climbed a nearby tree and I half-expected it to jump onto the second one.

It has been a great weekend, and happily it does not end tonight. Sheila’s birthday is tomorrow, and we have some surprises planned for her. Tomorrow is also the day for the TWC Career Boot Camp. I am signed up for the seminars- How to Get Your Foot in the Door and Negotiating Your First Salary. Hopefully they both are information-filled and not cancelled.

It is snowing pretty good outside now-Sheila, Caylah, Chris and I just got back from a snowball fight outside. The snow was coming down heavily and a good amount was already sticking to the floor. If enough sticks to close the federal buildings then the boot camp will be closed as well.

I was tasked with updating the staff information page today, which meant I had to upload a photo to a staff member’s information box and then create another box to hold another staff member’s information and future picture. It was pretty easy work, except that I forgot a few steps such as saving the picture to both the local and remote server. My superviser had to reshow me some basic steps, though considering it was only my second time to do so I think it went well. To view the Web site, it is http://www.phassociation.org/AboutPHA/Staff/index.asp.

I attended my first presidential lecture yesterday on the economy. It took place at the Department of the Interior and is the first of many in the presidential lecture series. Today, I met with Congressment John Boozman of Arkansas’ 3 district. I will have more of those later …

Up next: Watching Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress.

The National Archives was showing the document for only four days, Feb. 12-16, in honor of the Lincoln’s 200th birthday. While Lincoln is not my favorite president ( F Roosevelt is), it was still interesting to see the document. Here’s a picture of it.

We had to wait outside for around 45 minutes, where we talked to two students from Georgetown University, before we were able to get inside the museum. The security guard was unsure on whether to believe it was only a cough drop in my mouth-I had to show her, and once inside we had to wait another 45 minutes. However, I did get to look at the Magna Carta during my wait and search for the 9 eagles hidden inside the rotunda.

After the long afternoon, during which it briefly snowed twice, Caylah and I were finally able to make it back to the metro station to head home.