I heart Washington

While Dan toiled away on the beaches of Cancun at the CDC conference this past week (where he claims absolutely nothing fun happened), I went to Redmond for work. Part of the great deal I struck with AREVA when I moved was that they would send me back to Redmond to be on site one week per month. This was my second return trip to Washington and it was wonderful! Besides remembering how much I love my job (which is easy to forget when I'm working from home), I opted to stay a couple extra days and attend the annual AREVA holiday party and Dunscomb Christmas party.

I also like to take these opportunities to stalk my old residence... here it is looking the same as ever (but boy howdy, they better remember to prune those rose bushes and fruit trees!). There was a work truck in the driveway and the occasional masked worker stepping out the front door to shake off sawdust... I wonder if they are fixing the stairs!

Unfortunately I forgot my super cute dress for the holiday party, but fortunately there is a consignment children and maternity clothing store in downtown Redmond. I picked up this dress the morning of the party for $13! It was a little too big but the price was right. In case you were wondering, the AREVA holiday party is not nearly as fun when you aren't drinking. Nevertheless, it was still nice to see people. Here are some photos from the party.

Me, Yuka, and Lilian (who all started AREVA on the same day 4.5 years ago!)

Judy, Rina, Me, and Alicia. Rina's baby is due on Christmas day, so we all refer to him as Santa.

After spending two and a half hours at the AREVA holiday party, I took Alicia to the Dunscomb's Christmas party. It was a wine and cheese theme but luckily for me they also had their traditional Wassail drink. It was snowing pretty heavily by the time we got there, and Alicia and I decided against the trip back to Issaquah Highlands so we crashed on the Dunscomb's couches. Which means we got to witness the 3am polar bear plunge, in which all the boys, and Amy, jumped in the very unheated swimming pool. Dana even managed a snow angel.

Amy and Brian, whom I hadn't seen since Greece last year!

Scott, Dana, me, and Alicia.

I love couch pictures! Mike, me, Tarah, Paul, and Emily

Here is a picture of the polar bears.

An after picture of the polar bears - they survived!

I also had many wonderful but undocumented moments throughout the week - dinner with Lindy, visiting my Pilates girls, locking Jayant and Rina out of their house (okay, that one wasn't as wonderful), tea and creme brulee with Lisa, make-your-own pizza with the AREVA ski team at Jonathan's house, and of course girl night with the girls. All in all, I have concluded that my heart is still in Washington.

PS. Miracle of miracles! 18 weeks, and I'm starting to feel better. I'm pretty much only sick in the evenings now, for a couple hours at most. It feels so decadent! And I've started eating about every two hours, it is very nice to have an appetite again. I guess the rare genetic disease I thought I had discovered which would render me sick for the rest of my life was not to be.

PPS. Special thanks to my parents who took Finny in for the week!