blooming: hostas and crepe myrtles

i'm back from another weekend in philly. this driving back and forth thing is getting really old, though i love being back in philly and seeing friends there. however, everytime i go up there i miss out on informal get-togethers with my classmates, and these are certainly the people with whom i need to be schmoozing to pave the way for future job-related helpfulness. also, i'm not getting very much sit-in-the-hammock-with-a-book-and-some-iced-tea time, which is a shame, i tell you what.

we spent wed-fri of last week on an off-site team-building retreat in west virginia. it was great to be outside, out of our suits, and out of DC for a few days. we bonded as a class, and got to know our teachers and CDOs (career development officers, aka the ones who assign us our first posts). our CDOs, however, have driven us absolutely nuts by telling us that they know where we're assigned for our first posts, but they aren't going to tell us until Flag Day, july 31. arg! for good reason (as soon as they tell us, we're going to stop paying attention in class, true enough), but that doesn't mean it doesn't drive us batty that they know where we'll be living for the next 2-3 years AND WE DON'T. anyway, back to the usual tomorrow.