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Monday, January 31, 2011

Job & Aiken Adventures

My last update was December 2nd, and boy has a lot gone on since then!

The holidays went without a glitch, and I was lucky to be able to spend Christmas with my family at Millwood this year. Last year I was working in PA, and had to work that morning so I wasn't able to make it in time for the Judy family Christmas.

New Years was by far the best I've ever had. It seems to get talked up so much every year that I end up spending it alone at my house with my own bottle of champagne! (Of course, I usually fall asleep by midnight). This year I was prepared.. with a date! I went ahead and made reservations through OpenTable.com for a place in Arlington called Extra Virgin. We wanted to keep it a pretty low key night since it does seem to get over-hyped, so the plan was to have dinner and return to his apartment to watch the ball drop in NYC. After our AMAZING 4-course meal at Extra Virgin, we decided to stick around the area and ended up hitting a few of the restaurant/bars nearby. Since we were still there by midnight, we ended up at a dive of a place dancing to some goofy music and ordering champagne from a bar to cheers. It ended up being one of those insanely random nights, and we were both exhausted by the end of it!

Post-holidays, I had a few interviews after being recommended to them by my internship job. My first was for an Executive Assistant position at a PAC, and the other was for a Press Assistant position for a House Rep. Unfortunately, I received a callback from the PAC saying they LOVED me, but thought I would hate that job. The House office never called. So, I kept on trucking :)

In January I volunteered at the Republican National Committee Annual Meeting at National Harbor, MD, as a WHIP-runner for (then) Chairman Michael Steele. He was running for re-election, and I thought it would be a great way to get involved in the whole process. It turned out to be SUPER educational, and it was amazing to see how sheisty it can get in politics! It was more interesting because it reminded me of high school elections. Almost a popularity contest at the end of it all. Anyway, Steele didn't win (as you know), Reince Priebus did- my least favorite candidate! Oh well. I was definitely bummed, but it didn't impact me as much as the rest of his team. They were pretty devastated to lose their jobs! Overall, I probably wouldn't do it again, but it was a great learning experience!

Nearing the end of the RNC meeting, I got an email from the PAC. They were interested in interviewing me again for another position with the company, one which they thought I would be perfect for. So I went in, and it was a unanimous decision to hire me on :) Starting January 18th, 2011, I became the Development & Marketing Assistant at a Business PAC in Washington, D.C. My first real life big girl job!! It's been exhausting, but also thrilling to learn new ways of building a department in such an established company. I'm really looking forward to working there!

This past weekend a friend and I loaded Wanda up in the trailer (after my parents and I spent 3 hours in the snow digging out bamboo so we could free the driveway back to the barn!) and drove the 9 hours South to Aiken, South Carolina. I haven't been able to ride Wanda very much since the ground has been so terrible and I've been so busy with work, so I talked the guys at Phillip Dutton's Aiken barn, Red Oak, in to conditioning her for me where the weather is much better! When we arrived there, it was about 65 degrees!! A pretty nice change from the 30 degree weather we've been having here in VA. Wanda was SOOO excited to be there. When I turned her out, she ran off bucking and prancing like a stallion. I hope she's not too much of a handful!!

My friend and I stayed at the Hotel Aiken, which I have ALWAYS wanted to do. It is a historic hotel in the center of the city, so we could just walk downstairs to the super popular bar, the Polo Tavern, and the Hotel Aiken's restaurant, 100 Laurens. We ate at the restaurant, where they only serve Tapas but they're amazing, and met up with all my horsey friends afterward at the Polo Tavern. It was so great to see all the people I worked with last year and it definitely made me miss being there!

Sunday morning we packed up and headed back up toward VA. We made a quick stop in Cary, NC to visit my friend's parents (and his giant rottweiler!). They made us lunch, which was a much-needed rest stop since we were pretty tired of driving, and we got back on the road. We arrived home at about 7:30pm, and  after I made some Easy Mac, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!! I slept like an absolute rock. Now it's back to my real life job!!