A trip to our Nation's Capital

At the beginning of October, I cashed in some Frequent Flyer miles to visit friends in Washington D.C.!

I had visited DC two other times before while Kara was at Georgetown, but finally go to go when I was 21 and could see what post-grad life is like in Washington.

I had only ever flown into Dulles or taken a train, so there was nothing like landing into Reagan Airport, as it is right against the Potomac River and feels like the plane is going to land in the water.

Kalyn, who I stayed with, lives in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, while Amy lives closer to the Capitol. For just a few days, we got to do quite a lot. While both of them were at work, I went to the Newseum and four Smithsonians- Air & Space, American Indian, the Art Gallery and American History Museums. Amy & I checked out H Street for Dinner, and then Kalyn and I joined her friends on U Street for the evening.

The next day, we hung around Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, DuPont Circle and even got to see Kara who was coming through town with her boyfriend to see their college friends. Sunday, after getting to see St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, we shopped the Eastern Market and biked the Capitol area to see all of the memorials. It was a packed 72 hours but exciting to see all DC has to offer, especially for free.

Kalyn and I by the Capitol

Amy and I at Fox News, where she works

Kalyn, me and Amy while we Capital Biked the monuments

Eastern Market in Washington D.C.

Agency

The New York Times headline “agency” caught my eye in this article, as I tend to follow agency news working at a media & advertising agency. After reading the first few grafs of The Agency Moment, I quickly learned the piece was discussing a different type of agency.

The first Merriam-Webster definition of agency that I am familiar with is a business that provides a particular service, but the second was something interesting: the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power. 

The columnist David Brooks writes:

"Among the privileged, especially the privileged young, you see people who have been raised to be approval-seeking machines. They act active, busy and sleepless, but inside they often feel passive and not in control. Their lives are directed by other people’s expectations, external criteria and definitions of success that don’t actually fit them." 

“So many people are struggling for agency. They are searching for the solid criteria that will help them make their own judgments." 

"Agency is not automatic. It has to be given birth to, with pushing and effort…It’s having engraved inner criteria to guide action. The agency moment can happen at any age, or never. I guess that’s when adulthood starts.”

Take a moment to reflect on all of that, incredibly relevant to people in their 20s, and think of how it relates to you. 

What does your zip code say about you?

I spent some time playing around Esri's zip code lookup feature on its website, which lets you type in your zip code and learn about geographic areas.

Esri is a geographic information systems company with mapping software that visualizes data, and this is a perfect example of a user-friendly interface providing interesting and worthwhile information.

This site shows each zip code's "Tapestry segment" (a type of segmentation), income, age and population density.

Check out some of my quick findings!

The top segment for where I work downtown, which I checked just to understand who actually owns property there. 

In the 60601 Loop / River North area, the median age was 33.1 with a median income of $104K. 

This differs from Northbrook (60062), whose zip code search shows an average of $107K household income, but an average age of 49.2. Eighteen percent are "exurbanites," married couples who are empty nesters, just like the Artemas parents!

The top segment for Lakeview, sounds pretty accurate!

My current neighborhood

The top segment at Mizzou is "Dorms to Diplomas."

Check yourself

I recently read about this app called Checky on Dot Complicated. Checky runs in the back of your phone to count how many times you check your phone screen throughout the day. 

Although it might be a battery hack long-term, it’s worth checking out to understand your own phone-checking habit and quantify how many times you do look at your screen each day. Check it out!

Seven capital virtues

A lot of times in religion, we focus on what we are not instead of what we are. This came up not too long ago in a conversation about Orthodox Christianity. When people ask what it is, people will respond "It's Christianity, but not fully catholic, not Jewish...etc." 

Recently, during some reading I came across a list of the seven deadly sins:

1. Pride
2. Greed
3. Lust 
4. Anger
5. Gluttony
6. Envy 
7. Sloth 

But for the first time in religious education, immediately following the Seven Deadly Sins were Seven Capital Virtues. I had never heard of these, and read that they were the opposite of the seven grievous sins. 

1. Humility
2. Liberality
3. Chastity
4. Mildness 
5. Temperance
6. Happiness
7. Diligence

You are taught your entire life that we live in a fallen world with sins, and to abstain from sins, but never to strive for these significant virtues. Why hadn't I heard of these before? They are incredibly powerful and a perfect example of values and how to embody a faithful lifestyle. 

Nik Wallenda takes on Chicago

A few weeks ago in the news, I came across a headline that said a tightrope walker would walk across two Chicago skyscrapers. I laughed, wondering how that could even be true, come to find out one of the skyscrapers was the building I work in. The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs had allowed Nik Wallenda, tightrope walker extraordinaire, to do this stunt on a Sunday evening at the start of Chicago's winter as he continues to challenge himself to do stunts crazier than the next. He has previously walked across the Grand Canyon & Niagara Falls- clearly no big deal, right?

A week later, news released that the walk would have a second leg...blindfolded. Dumbfounded by the whole stunt, I counted down the days until I could watch him do this from the Leo Burnett building. It made me sick to my stomach to think about, but was fascinating at the same time. My coworkers and I scouted out where the best places in the building to watch were (ready to hit up our 32nd floor), and contemplated how many people we could bring.

The building association beat us out, limiting the number of people that could enter. After some ups and downs of getting on the attendance list, I finally secured a spot for my parents, Irina and I to watch both walks on  the 29th floor. It was as cool as it seems!

Mom, Dad and I on the 29th floor

We arrived early to claim a spot and had a few hours before the walk actually began. We got a laptop to listen to the live coverage, and finally around 7:30 pm, watched Nik gracefully cross the Chicago River from Marina City in less than 7 minutes. It was his first walk on an incline and was nearly 15 degrees. 

The inclined walk to Leo Burnett

Blindfolded walk

Just a few minutes later, significantly faster, we saw him walk blindfolded from one Marina tower to the next. Claimed the scarier walk, if went incredibly quick and everyone rejoiced that we did not witness a death! It was an awesome experience and as a friend put it, comparable to a living stunt from The Hunger Games that a U.S. city let it happen. After Nik conquered Chicago, I'll surely be following him and the Flying Wallendas the rest of my lifetime. 

The crowd and light outside

Lexi & Chris's wedding

Apologies for the monthlong delay here!

We celebrated Lexi's bachelorette party back in August, but two months flew by and the weekend of October 4, it was time for her and Chris to get married. Chris and Lexi met at Mizzou, and their relationship took off through Mojo Ad, our senior capstone class where we work for a full-service ad agency. I met Lexi in our 'tryout' class for Mojo, and Chris and I were on the same team.

I had the honor of being one of Lexi's bridesmaids, along with her sisters, two sorority sisters and two other Mojo Ad friends - Gwen and Natasha. Despite being the beginning of October, there were 38-degree record lows on their wedding day- but we conquered the cold and had an absolute blast.

The ceremony was beautiful and everyone danced the night away at the reception. They even had a reception after the reception, with food for everyone and a few extra hours of hanging out after dancing. It was a great time to catch up with Mizzou friends, and is always a pleasure to get to know the friends and family of your own friends!

Here's the wedding video if you'd like to check it out, and the shorter version here!

Lexi and the bridesmaids!

Chris and Lexi with Mojo Ad's Maven team from spring 2012
Me, Hannah, Chris, Lexi, Alex and Stacy

Relaxing in Punta Cana

Back in the winter, Irina and I were ice skating at Millennium Park in the Chicago cold. We were talking about how we had taken various trips- whether it be to visit a friend, go on a school interview, travel a particular city, but neither of us had taken a vacation in awhile. I see a significant difference between a trip and a vacation; a trip focuses on traveling somewhere with a purpose, i.e. visiting a friend or seeing all a place has to offer, and a vacation's main purpose is relaxation. 

A few weeks later, Irina reached out to a travel agent and sooner than later, we were going to an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic just outside of Punta Cana for six days in the middle of November. I had some days off for work, she had a break in between grad school quarters; it was great.

Irina and I at the hotel

We arrived at our hotel to learn that it was five hotels on one property, with a huge area and nearly six pools. Our building was by the lobby, and just a few blocks back was the main pool and the ocean front. 

For five full days, we woke up, went to the buffet and sat at the beach all day. Our beach time started with riding the waves and treading water, then moved onto a zumba, salsa and merengue class in the quick sand and then ended with some reading in the sun. After a super exhausting morning, we took a nap in the air conditioned room, ate dinner and went to bed. It was fabulous. 

Dancing on the beach!

A quick game we played was "Guess the time," as we often had no idea what day of the week or time it was (we didn't need to!). Our room didn't even have a clock, and we typically overshot the time. We so had fun guessing where people were from and what language they spoke, as the majority of guests were not from the U.S. We met and came across others from Canada, Portugal, Spain, England, Australia, Russia, France, Germany and more- speaking any of these native languages on any given day. It makes sense due to its location that it would attract such a variety of people, but was cool to be in such a global hotel and speak Spanish again. 

Our hotel pool

I hadn't been to an all-inclusive since 8th grade, so it was a different perspective to experience it ten years later. The food was not the best we've ever eaten, but got the job done. Having an unlimited open bar had an inverse effect, as knowing that everything was available at any time allows you to try everything but not require you to finish it. Lastly, I learned that on vacation, I don't like to socialize. Overall, it was an awesome, refreshing trip and I now understand the meaning of vacation and recharge! 

Beach time