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Although my boyfriend and I have been dating for over six months, it wasn’t until recently that I came to the following realization:

Before I was born and my parents decided to go with a different name, my mom referred to me as Rachel Lenore.

My boyfriend’s last two long-term relationships were with women named Rachael…and Leanor.

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I’ve had a bump on my lip for about five months. It never hurts or changes shape, but it’s also never gone away. I went to a dermatologist recently and he said it’s a blocked salivary gland. He also recommended leaving it as-is unless there’s a noticeable change or starts to hurt, which it currently does not — the other option would be to cut it out and stitch up my lip, which would be quite a bit more noticeable.

It actually looks worse in this close-up photo than it does in real life (I’m linking to it rather than posting it here because I don’t want a big ‘ol picture of my lips on the screen). I’ve never had anyone ask about it or point it out (other than my dentist during a routine cleaning a few months ago). I’m hoping it goes away on its own.

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This photo was taken in an elevator in Vienna, Austria. I found it while looking through some old photos recently — it was taken a year ago this month when I was on a two-week trip to Europe. I like to call it: “Zan is Wearing Sunglasses on an Elevator.”

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Last weekend, I was told by a male friend that my home decorating style reminds him of how a man would decorate. He meant it as a compliment to my minimalist tendencies and I took it that way.

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Two friends from Richmond came to visit me in DC last Saturday. I’ve known Chris for almost 13 years and Teresa just about as long. We drove a few places (and walked others), and they complimented me more than once on my awesome parallel parking skills. (I rarely had to parallel park when I lived in Richmond so I couldn’t give them any crap about their lack of talent in this area.)

This is Chris checking out mirrors at Eastern Market (he ended up buying three of them in different colors to put on a wall in his house).

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This weekend: Attending a Nationals game tonight, going to a wedding tomorrow in Fredericksburg VA, and then a friend’s cookout on Sunday.

1. I’m going to Seattle for a few days next week as part of a Nintendo-sponsored event. I’ll write about it when I return (hint: it’s related to the release of the Nintendo 3DS).

2. Best movie I’ve seen in a long time: The King’s Speech. I went to the theater knowing I would like it (based on recommendations from others who had seen it), but I was more impressed than I thought I would be. I laughed, I cringed, I teared-up (I rarely cry at movies, so the tearing-up was significant).

3. I saw the movie at E Street Cinema in DC with my friend Chris Abraham. It turns out we chose the same random weekday as Morgan Spurlock, who was there to promote his new film The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, along with Ralph Nader. Totally unexpected. (Thanks to Chris for taking the photos.)

2. I’m looking forward to making a big, productive trip to the grocery store. My car is still covered with snow, but at some point soon I should attempt to dig it out. It’s amazing how one person can deplete most of the supplies from their kitchen when they’re eating all their meals at home for a week (except for that one time when I fought my way through the snow to get sushi for lunch).

3. I’ve done a lot of reading this week — I finished two books and started two others. Before this month, the last book I finished was in November (I started a few books in December and January but could never get into them enough to read them all the way through). Luckily I picked up a few books from the library the day before the first snowstorm hit last week, so I’ve been working my way through those.

4. A few weeks ago I drove down to Richmond to hang out with my sisters. This photo was taken of us while I was there and I’ve been using it as the wallpaper on my phone ever since. I love these ladies.

(Elissa, Angela, me)

If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d become interested in shoes one day, it would have been hard for me to believe you. In the past, I would buy shoes that were…okay (basically what I mean by that is cheap) and then I’d wear them into the ground. I never bought anything all that cute or exciting — in other words, there were a lot of blacks and browns in my shoe collection.

Over the past year or so, that’s been slowly changing. I’m sure a big reason for the change is because I started taking more pride and care in dressing up for work, even more so since I started my new job a few months ago. Since I’m dressing nicer than I used to, I need shoes that fit in with those new clothing choices.

So now I own things like red heels, and bronze flats with buckles (thanks to a recommendation that I found on Jackie’s blog), and black pumps by Cole Haan (the most comfortable heels I’ve ever owned, I might add), and another pair of Cole Haans that I love, which happen to be a pair of shiny knee-high brown boots that I paid more for than I’ve ever paid for shoes before. (But you know what? They’re also the only shoes I’ve ever owned where I receive at least one compliment, if not more, from a stranger every time I wear them. “I love those boots,” they say.)

The only problem? I have one teeny-tiny closet in my bedroom and they do NOT fit. So I have shoes lined up against my walls, while some are in boxes on a shelf and under the bed. If that’s not a good reason to find a new apartment with a bigger closet, I don’t know what is.

2) Meat-meat-meat

When I left work last night, I was carrying a plastic bag filled with frozen venison. The husband of a co-worker likes to hunt and they always share what they bring home. When I told her that I haven’t had venison since I was a kid, she offered to bring some in for me. I’m looking forward to eating it, but now I have to figure out how I’m going to prepare it (some of it’s ground, and there’s also a roast). I’m thinking this Apple-Scented Venison Roast would be a good possibility — it seems easy enough to make, just dumping ingredients in a crockpot.

3) Semi-famous!

My ultra-cute friend Shannon Stamey was interviewed for a story about manners in the Style section of the New York Times. It’s always cool seeing someone’s name — and photo! — that you know in print. (I originally met Shannon online, but now we’re real-life friends…which I happen to think is a pretty cool way to meet.) You can read her account on her blog.

A few things have happened in the last few weeks:

* My friend Janet from Slice of Pink came for a visit to DC. She was here for an entire weekend, but I only got to see her for about 3-4 hours on the first night she arrived because our schedules didn’t coincide the rest of the time. Still, it was wonderful catching up with her. We used to live in the same town during the year I lived in southern California, and I also got to see her at BlogHer ’08 in San Francisco. She’s one of the most delightful people I know (seriously, I used the word “delightful” to describe her to my sister last week, and I don’t think I’ve ever used that word to describe anyone before).

* I went to Atlanta for two days to attend a company training/networking event. Well, I tell everyone that I went to Atlanta, but actually the training took place at a hotel that was less than a mile from the airport. So that’s not technically Atlanta. I’ll have to go to the actual city some other time to see if I like it or not. As a team-building exercise while we were there, we assembled bicycles to give away to a charity. That was something I’d never done before, so it was a pretty cool experience.

* I went to Richmond and got drunk with my mom. Isn’t she cute? While I was there that weekend, my nephew made me watch two scary movies (which I strongly disliked), and I also saw the last hour or so of Marley & Me (and I did NOT cry at the end when the dog was put to sleep. I guess this proves my hard-heartedness). I also received — and answered — a very unexpected phone call that weekend, but that’s a long, non-bloggable story.

* One of the things I did for Halloween Festivities last weekend was to hang out with my friend Andrea (a former co-worker) and some of her friends at Capitol Lounge on Capitol Hill. As we were walking to the bar, we passed Sasha and Malia Obama trick-or-treating with a group of adults (but no, not their parents). This pic was taken at the bar — as the photographer aimed the camera (my phone) at us, I tried to pull down Andrea’s low-cut shirt. She caught me just as the pic was taken – hence the smiles.

* I’m excited about tonight because two of my good friends from Richmond, Chris and Teresa, are driving up to see me. I’m taking them out in Old Town Alexandria tonight, and when we get home I think I’ll make both of them pile up with me in my double bed so we can have a good ‘ol slumber party. Or something like that. Tomorrow? They’ve never been to Georgetown, so I think we’ll head out there and see the sights.

This pic was taken of the three of us back in May, when I was in Richmond. We must take new, just-as-cute photos this weekend!

My new (free-to-me, paid for by my company) work BlackBerry arrived in the mail yesterday. It kind of makes me feel like I have a “big girl” job now, even though I’ve been solely responsible for all my bills and living expenses since I was 17 years old.

I had initially looked into using my iPhone as my personal and work phone, but the tech people at my company don’t support them with our computer systems. In order for me to access my work email and calendar when I’m away from my computer, I need a BlackBerry. Which isn’t a big deal, because it seems like a cool phone and all, but now I’ll be carrying around two phones every day. And I kind of feel just a little bit self-indulgent that I own two expensive phones, especially since they both have internet access (and I never even had a phone with internet access until five months ago when I bought my iPhone).

The upside to the BlackBerry is that I requested service through Verizon, so when I don’t have service in the Metro with the AT&T-only iPhone, I have an alternate source of connection to the outside world.

2) Touchy-feely

I bought a plane ticket to Dallas a few months ago because my aunt Cathy asked if I wanted to meet her there to see a U2 concert. I was supposed to leave today and come back next Tuesday, but a few weeks ago I decided I wasn’t going to go. I didn’t want to take off two days from my new job and also, when I thought about it, I realized that my mom would have a much better time than I would.

You see, my aunt Cathy is her younger sister, they very rarely get to see each other, my mom hardly ever goes on vacation without my stepdad (and usually at least one of my brothers or nephew), and she’s never seen U2. (I saw U2 twice on their Vertigo tour in early 2006, and I saw them here in DC last week with some friends.)

So I told my mom to take off work, and I bought her a plane ticket, and as it turns out I’m way happier about her going than if it were me, because she’s so-so-so excited. And that makes me feel pretty awesome.

3) This weekend

Tomorrow is my roommate’s birthday, and we’re having some people over to our place on Saturday night. We may end up going out to a bar later, or maybe we’ll stay in…it all depends on how we feel, so plans are kind of up in the air right now. But that’s okay. It’ll be fun.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Since I found out last week that I got the new job, I’ve been putting some thought into my wardrobe. The workplace where I’ve been for the past two years is business casual, so I have a number of dresses and skirts and dressy slacks — but I’m thinking that some of the stuff I currently wear might not be appropriate for New Job. Like a few dresses I have with deep v-necks? It’s not like my cleavage is falling out or anything, but I might not feel as comfortable wearing them at New Job (at least not until I’ve been there for a while or have an opportunity to see how the other females are dressing). Either way, I see some clothes shopping in my future.

2) Replacement

I’ve been helping look through the resumes that are coming in after we posted an announcement for the job I’m vacating. We received over 100 resumes in the first 24 hours; subsequent days have slowed down a bit but it’s still a lot. Is it weird that I kind of want to come back for a visit in a few weeks and see who they found to replace me?

3) This weekend

I’ll be in Richmond for my little sister’s wedding (she’s 26). She and her fiance are getting married tomorrow night at 5pm; I’ll be there in all my eggplant-colored bridesmaid dress glory.

(I decided to keep the Stuart Weitzmans. They look pretty fantastic and I figured I can walk in them at least long enough to make it down the aisle in style.)

Happy weekend, everyone!

September 1st was my seven year blogiversary. (Seven! Seven! Seven!) Crazy.

Speaking of seven — I went back and counted, just out of curiosity, to see how many times I posted on this blog in August. I posted seven times.

I took a break from my regular blogging gig at BlogHer.com in August — I’ve been writing for them for 2.5 years, and I decided I needed a few weeks off. Did I miss it? Honestly, no, I didn’t. But it was only four weeks, and four weeks goes by pretty fast. It was kind of nice to reclaim those hours on Sundays and Tuesdays, the days I usually have posts due.

I’m resuming my writing for BlogHer this month, but I’ll be posting only on Sundays, instead of twice a week like I’ve been doing since January.

You guys…seven years. That number floors me a little bit. I love writing…I do. But there’s a good chance that I’ll continue doing what I’ve been doing for the past few months, which is only updating once or twice a week. There’s just all this other…stuff. Social stuff and job stuff and — well, you get the idea. And there will be no apologies, because this is my life. (If you can’t tell, I really dislike it when bloggers apologize for not posting. You don’t owe anything to anybody but yourself — if you’re writing for free, that is.)

2) Ow!

I had blood drawn from my arm at my doctor’s office yesterday (re: a thyroid-level checkup), and this is the second time I’ve had blood drawn there where the technician had to stick me twice with the needle to find my vein. Usually the problem is with my right arm, though, so yesterday I made sure to offer up my left arm. In went the needle…she wiggled it around…pulled it halfway out and then back in. (Me: “Ow!”) So she took it out and tried again, and luckily it worked the second time. Still, I currently have a bruise on the inside of my left arm that’s quite noticeable.

3) This weekend

I’m not traveling out of town, and I’m very happy about that. I’ve driven to Richmond the past two weekends (and the two weekends before that I was either leaving for — or coming back from — Montana), and I’ll be going back to Richmond in a few weeks for my little sister’s wedding, so I’m happy to stay in this area for a while.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!

I took a bath last night, per my swim instructor’s request. See, he seems to think — given my hesitation towards submerging my head under water — that practicing in a smaller environment first might help ease me into things a bit.

So I did. It got easier after subsequent tries, but after the first attempt when water rushed into my nose and made it burn (even though I didn’t inhale), I came to the conclusion that I’d have to be one of those dreaded nose-pluggers. (My instructor doesn’t approve of such tactics and asked me to try going underwater without holding my nose.) But I say…I need baby-Zan steps! I’ll learn to swim and tread water first, then maybe I’ll worry about unplugging my nose.

2) The Big House…

I went on a White House tour on Wednesday night. It didn’t take as long to walk through the East Wing as I thought…maybe 15-20 minutes? It was cool to see, though. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside, but this is the view of the side of the house that faces Pennsylvania Avenue.

3) Read this

I read a post by Sassymonkey this morning and wanted to share it — she talks about being childless by choice, and the reason I like it so much is because I could have written it. Everything she says, I completely agree with.

4) This weekend

I’m driving to Richmond tonight for the second weekend in a row, this time to help set up, prepare for, and attend my little sister’s bridal shower. It’s scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at my older sister’s house. There will be some friends, some family, and a few people I don’t know or don’t know very well (coming from the groom’s side of the family), but it should be a good time. I’ll come home either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, and my second swimming lesson will be on Sunday afternoon.

Happy weekend, everyone.

My friend Tripp has been living with me and my roommate for the past month — he had to move out of his last place, so we let him sleep on our couch while he looked for a new one. He’ll be moving out this weekend (just a few miles away, though, instead of 40+ minutes like he used to be), so here’s a look-back at some of the…interesting…times we’ve had while he’s been staying with us.

He hooped with my weighted hula hoop.

He helped my roommate put together a tent in our living room when she needed to practice for an upcoming camping trip.

(P.S. I did not help with the assembly of the tent. Those are my feet on the ottoman.)

Apparently he thinks I’m up to no good when I take pictures of him when he’s on the phone.

He made Rice Krispies Treats earlier this week, even though I asked him not to (but yes, I did eat some).

2) This weekend

I’m driving to Richmond tomorrow to attend my friend Eddie’s wedding. I’ve known him for about 10 years, and I’ll be going to the wedding with a number of friends, so it should be a fun time. Here’s a pic of me and Eddie from back in the day — I’m not sure of the date since this was a scanned photo, but I’m guessing it was probably 2000.

(Yes, I used to have bangs! I grew them out in late ’01 or early ’02.)

Happy weekend, everyone!