Sunday, July 3, 2022
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Of course, starting with Empanada Domingos, Ben and I got the classic Spicy Chicken Empanada. Ben also got the veggie empanada, and he gave it great reviews. I also bought a Garlic and Chive cheese spread at the farmer’s market and it was…amazing.
The rest of Sunday consisted of relaxing and getting ready for the week.
Monday, I had the pleasure of joining Brad at the University of Maryland (UMD) to watch him give a talk and to network if possible. I had never seen Brad give a talk, and he did great! His confidence inspired me and made me reflect on talks I’ve given in the past. Brad’s talk consisted of advice about careers, futures in physics, and multiple stories of former colleagues. I enjoyed the fact that Brad did not push one specific pathway on to his audience. He remained neutral, and simply encouraged them to pursue physics if they have a passion for it. Before last semester, I had never thought about graduate school deeply, but some part of me would love to excel in this field even more than I feel like I do. I have a meeting with Donna Hammer soon, to talk about the potential of attending grad school at UMD. She would also like me to present my SOCK later in the summer, which I would be grateful and glad to do!
On Tuesday the interns had planned a potluck to take place later in the evening. We organized this so that each room would bring a dish rather than each person. Emma and I came up with the idea of making—you guessed it—empanadas. These would be sweet empanadas, normally filled with apple, cherry, or blueberry filling. The night before, Emma went on an empanada ingredient chase at three different stores. She couldn’t find pie crust or filling, so we unfortunately decided to settle on a normal apple pie. But! fear not my friend, Tuesday after work Anthony was kind enough to take us to Safeway where all the empanada supplies were acquired. Immediately when we got home, Emma and I became baking masters—rolling the dough, filling the empanadas, and folding them just before a drizzle of egg wash and cinnamon. The interns came to consignment with many different and delicious foods. A zucchini boat, black bean noodles, and potato casserole serving later, I was stuffed (but not enough to refuse an empanada).
The next day at work I filmed my Cloud in a Bottle video. I found that the best way to record videos is filming in portrait and landscape, so we have multiple versions to post on various platforms. This took me about an hour, and I performed the demo about 6 times total. My next plan of action for this is to write an instruction document. Sometime during this week, I also made a small Eclipse demo to include in my SOCK that would be ideal for elementary ages.
Later, I bought a ticket to ‘Paddle the Potomac’ which was $10 for 2 hours of kayaking or paddle boarding. It was a fun experience but could have been better. Because it is such a great deal, we are all going to again this coming Wednesday. This time, I’ll make sure not do arm day a day before.
Thursday we all joined together in consignment to play session 1 of D&D. I had no idea that it consisted of role playing as your character, so that came to a surprise when Justin yelled in his Scottish accent. This started getting everyone excited to participate and made it even more fun. We ended the session a couple hours later, after winning our first battle with no damage to any of the characters. Next Thursday a lot of the interns are going to watch Thor: Love and Thunder so we’ll reschedule D&D for another day!
My best friend Megan came to visit this weekend and arrived Friday afternoon. It was so nice seeing her, especially after going two months since our iconic rant/vent/laugh/cry sessions. I introduced her to most of the interns and we all went for happy hour in Georgetown! Wednesday was my first time in Georgetown, and it was nice to be back so soon. It is really beautiful, especially at sunset. Anyway, we went to Mr. Smiths and honestly it wasn’t what I was expecting. I wish it had more of a selection and bigger portions. After that we headed home and laughed and talked for a couple of hours.
Saturday, we geared up to begin the 4th of July festivities. We went to multiple places around Dupont Circle and saw many sporting their USA gear. Everywhere we went was so fun and I am so glad Megan was there! We walked back home and began to relax after a questionable margherita pizza, and a beautiful charcuterie board put together by Taylor C. The night wasn’t long as we all were in bed by midnight.
This post was a little shorter, but it was a fun week! Hope to see you here then!
Janessa Slone