Archiving History..

With all that has taken place the last year, so many of us want to PRESERVE the memories. I’ve found a great website that has FABULOUS advice and great archival products to preserve the memories.

Me being a scrappy, photography, memory-preserving type person, I’ve been looking for ways to preserve newspapers, photos, etc. I’ve collected GREAT newspapers to keep for memories, but newspapers are printed on the worst possible quality paper you can print on they don’t keep if they are touched with your bare fingers, body oils, etc.

Newspapers, especially, they should be kept in a poly bag and in an archival box. Here is a great product to do just that. Archival Methods has other great archival products. Check them out!

A Few Things I Love About Living in the DMV

Just sharing a few things I love about living in this area in the summer (comes a cool second to my all time FAVE summer city, CHI-TOWN!).

Great American Restaurants – DC/VA/MD area

If you haven’t been to any of these fabulous restaurants, do yourself a favor and give them a visit! The food is great. The atmosphere is fab and they have locations all over northern VA.

One of my favorites is their Carlyle in Arlington (Shirlington area, to be exact). Great location for an intimate dinner, girls night out or a group night out.

Hubby and I ate there last night at their Coastal Flats location in Tyson’s Corner. Yummy!

Just thought that I’d share on what’s good in the DMV that I’ve experienced.

Sad News – Sean Taylor

On the way into work this morning, I heard on the radio that Washington Redskins Safety Sean Taylor had passed. There were encouraging signs the night before with him, but God called him home this morning. Here is a link to the Washington Post report.

I never met Sean Taylor nor ever saw him in passing. Heck, I’m hardly a Redskins fan. This morning, I think about HOW he died: protecting his one-year old daughter and girlfriend from an intruder. He did what any MAN would do.

He and his girlfriend were reportedly awakened by a noise in the house. When Sean got up from his bed and grabbed a machete (which he kept for protection, we are told) the intruder burst through the bedroom door and two shots were fired. One shot hit the wall and the other tore through Taylor’s leg, hitting an artery, causing him to lose a lot of blood.

Now, we all know that Taylor hasn’t been the law’s or reporter’s best friend and some may say, “Well, you live that life….” or whatever. Let me stop you, right there. Truth be told, if God were to judge us and we look back over our lives, NONE OF US deserve to be here and we’d all be gone from this earth. So before you begin to judge another’s life and HOW they lived it (which NONE of us know another’s TRUTH), look in the mirror. Has your life been crystal clear? Have you NEVER sinned.

A sin is a sin is a sin. There is no such thing as a “little sin” or a “big sin”. We’ve all done it, but God forgives us.

God: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”
Me: “That sure is a big pile of rocks back here”

Since I KNOW all the “Super Saints” of the world will be out to judge this man (and anybody else) for their faults, all of those who are have never done any dirt and are pure and clean and without fault can all stay in the room together…last one cut off the light………..

This man died because of another’s devilish act. End of story. A father, son, friend, brother, boyfriend and teammate has been taken away from those lives he affected.

I will keep his family and friends in prayer. I ask that you do the same.

We all could use a little self-reflection and prayer. I pray that God gives every life he touched, STRENGTH to make it from here until we are called home.

My morning METRO rant for the day….

Some “observations” that I’ve made since I moved here in 2001….

1. If you see that someone is “a little larger, when sitting, than 1 metro seat” (i.e., I am not the smallest person, but I’m not the largest, but 2 of ME can’t share a METRO 2-seat row!) and you, too, are that size or bigger, WE CAN’T SHARE A SEAT!!! WHY, WHY, WHY do people do this to me when there are empty seats, ALL AROUND!!??

2. If I am reading something and are writing while reading and am NOT looking up (i.e., studying, reading a small paper making notations, reading WORK-RELATED items, etc.), GET FROM OVER MY SHOULDER!! If I don’t make eye contact with you while you are reading over my arm, shoulder, in a PLEASANT way, um, BOUNCE from my reading!!!

3. I understand that we’d all like to drown out the sounds of others and the METRO announcers, but other riders on the car REALLY don’t want to hear YOUR music. If you choose to go deaf, that is on you, but not at everyone else’s expense!!! We REALLY don’t want to hear your music as if it were coming through the announcement speakers!! I should not be able to hear EVERY WORD and note of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Biggie, Garth Brooks, etc., when you have on EAR PODS/Headphones!!!!

4. You see other people have to get on the train and we all know that you are only riding for one stop, but MOVE YOUR TAILFEATHER TO THE MIDDLE AND LET OTHERS IN!! Dang it!! How hard could that be!! SIDE NOTE: METRO doors aren’t like the MARTA in Atlanta or the trains that are in Atlanta’s Airport…..THESE BOYS DO NOT REOPEN or BOUNCE BACK if they hit you!! GET ON THE DANG TRAIN!!! Oh, but see, those STANDING IN THE DOORWAY could facilitate that if they’d MOVE to the middle of the train when coming to a PACKED stop!!!

5. If you are standing in front of people and you feel as if you aren’t on the floor anymore and you feel something under your foot, THAT IS MY TOE or SOMEONE else’s!! DANG!! I had a lady who KEPT stepping on my toe, back and forth, and I finally said, “How many times are you going to step on my toe and not say excuse me or move over???” Geez………

6. If you and ALL of your 9 friends ride the train together, could you NOT carry on conversations over 5 rows???!!! COME ooooooooooooooooon!!! Again, there are just some things that we REALLY don’t want to hear……

7. No, it isn’t written, but STAND to the right and walk/run on the left, when it comes to the escalators!! You have received fair warning. Don’t act all new when someone tells you to MOVE when you are standing on the left…..

8. Oh, and the end of the line…….ya’ll……if you see someone sleep who isn’t moving off the train, tap them on the shoulder or something! Leaving them on the train is just a FOUL MOVE!! LOL….come on. We are all tired and are allowed to fall asleep on the train, but LEAVING SOMEONE ON THE TRAIN that is still sleep at the end of the line is just wrong!

That is my morning rant for METRO riders in the Washington, DC METRO area for the morning…. CHAO!!!