After 35 days of living the furloughed life, I officially went back to work today, and it was a really good feeling.

While I may have groaned a little bit when my alarm went off this morning, it's certainly nice to feel like a productive member of society again.

Being furloughed for 35 days was rough at times. I tried my best to find some semblance of a routine and forced myself to try to do at least one productive thing per day (even if it was just a workout). But there were definitely days when the stress really got to me and I just wanted to spend the entire day in my PJs watching TV.


A furlough day outing with some of my coworkers

I'm grateful that I live in DC because lots of businesses here tried to make the furlough a bit easier on federal employees.

I wanted to take a quick minute to thank those places.

I'll start with Jose Andres and his string of restaurants. I lost track of the number of times I stopped by one of his places for a free sandwich while the government was shutdown.



I also took advantage of free food multiple times from &pizza and Chopt. I tried to stop by Sweetgreen for a free salad one day, but they had closed early for the snow. Even though I didn't get my free salad, I appreciated the gesture.

I'm also grateful to all the museums that offered free entry to government employees. It was so nice to have an excuse to get out of the house and not have to spend a bunch of money.



I visited four museums during the shutdown: The National Building Museum, Madame Tussaud's, the Newseum, and the Law Enforcement Museum. The only one of them I had been to prior to the shutdown was the Newseum, so I learned a lot at all the others!



I'd also like to thank Rosetta Stone for the free 3-month membership. Having something to do that kept my brain engaged was really important for me. Plus I've been enjoying diving back in to the Spanish language again, and am hoping to keep up the lessons even though I'm back to work.

Daily Burn also hooked us up with free access to workouts online, which was great because I had lots and lots of time to fit work outs in during the furlough!

And lastly thanks to the Players Club, Stella Artois and Timber Pizza Company for throwing a special party for federal workers with free pizza, beer and games on Friday.

I'm so glad this shutdown is over. I tried to make the best of my shutdown time, but sometimes it's just tough. I'm hoping very hard that we don't shut down again in three weeks.

Nothing like a good softball win last night to kick off the week.


Going in to last night's game, I was a little nervous how we'd fare. We were playing one of the better teams in our division and with the holiday, a lot of our strong hitters couldn't make it.

Thank gosh we have a roster with like 50 people on it, and we were able to scrape together an 11-person squad.


Our starting pitcher was out, which meant I was on the mound and I won't lie, the first inning I was more than a little nervous. It's been a while since I've pitched in a game this season, and while I love pitching, the other team had some big, muscley dudes looking to drive the ball far.

I wasn't trying to give up a million runs and dig my team into a hole in the first inning.

But, I went 1-2-3 in the first, managing to force their #3 hitter to pop out, and that was all it took for my confidence to come back a bit. I take special pride in getting the other team's power hitters to pop out, and I was pretty successful in forcing them to hit the ball high in the air all night.

It helped that the top of our order put up a quick four runs in the bottom half of the inning and never looked back. I think we ended up winning by 8.

Hopefully that bodes well for us for the remainder of the season and we clinch a decent seed in the playoffs.

For those of you who asked for an update on the treadmill desks and how they actually worked yesterday -- they were interesting.


In total I walked three miles and Emily walked four over the course of the day.


The treadmills were great when I was doing sort of mindless things, like checking email and reading through some stuff. But when I really needed to concentrate on editing or writing, I had to get off the treadmill and sit on one of the stability ball chairs.

It took too much concentration for me to focus on more challenging things while also trying to walk, while also trying to type.

But I love having the treadmill desks as an option to get up and away from my desk and get a little movement in while doing some of the more routine tasks that are part of my job.

So verdict, I wouldn't want a treadmill desk as my only desk, but I'd love to have a few of them in our office that we could use when we wanted to get up and get moving.

So my office is testing some new options for desk configurations at work and this is the one I'm obviously most excited about.


Why yes that is a treadmill desk, and Emily and I are testing them out today at the office.

The treadmill maxes out at 2.0 mph, and I'm still experimenting to find a pace that is comfortable for me to get work done while walking.

The room also has stability ball chairs so that when you need a break from walking you can get a core workout too.


Definitely my kind of office setting.

Yesterday was one of those days that makes me realize I have the coolest/best job ever.

Yesterday morning, the Space Shuttle Discovery made its final flight around Washington, D.C. before heading to its permanent home at the National Air and Space Museum out in Virginia.


I'm pretty sure every working professional in DC was outside between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. to watch the shuttle make its loop of the city.

Lucky for me, the Kids.gov video team was sent to cover the event live, so we headed out to the mall bright and early and got everything set up.



We grabbed a short interview with a little girl who was there with her dad to watch the shuttle and then we sat back to wait for the 747 jet to cruise by.

All of a sudden someone shouted, "There it is!" as the plane with the shuttle on its back appeared next to the Washington Monument.

It cruised down the length of the mall, up toward the Capitol and down the other side.


It made several passes and the people in the crowded cheered and clapped each time. It was truly a site to see.


Here's the short video we put together afterward.



Thanks to my wonderful coworker Arlene for taking all these great pictures.


I think she was armed with the best lens of anyone watching!

You guys know that every so often I get to do really, really cool things at my job.

Like the time I held $320,000 at the U.S. Mint.


Or the time I got to go into one of the White House kitchens and interview their executive chef.

But I think yesterday takes the cake.

Yesterday, I got to go in the cage with an albino alligator while she was being fed.



Our team was on site at the National Aquarium in D.C. interviewing some of the staff about their jobs and all the animals in the aquarium for our kids website.


I've been to the National Aquarium in Baltimore several times, but had never checked out its sister location in D.C. The aquarium in D.C. is located in the basement of the Department of Commerce, pretty much the last place you'd expect to find a bunch of tanks full of animals.


Oleander, the albino alligator is on special display until April, and she is really quite a sight. She's still pretty small, only about four feet long, and compared to other alligators she's much more docile. And she's obviously not that dark green/black color you expect to see in alligators.

Fun fact: There are fewer than 100 albino alligators in the world.

When I was in her cage, Oleander stayed in the water and didn't really pay any attention to me, although at one point she got bored with her food and started swimming in my direction.


As you'll notice, I sort of started to back up a little bit then. She might be small and have poor eyesight compared to other alligators, but she's still an alligator.

The aquarium staff feed her a variety of different food, but yesterday's delicacy was frozen mice. So yep, I got up close and personal with some frozen mice for the camera.

Being that close to an alligator was really, really cool. I've been to aquariums tons of times, but I've never had a chance to be on the other side of the glass.

P.S. If you're curious, you can check out a virtual tour of the D.C. aquarium. You'll notice right away how different Oleander looks compared the alligator in the virtual tour.

Remember last month when I got to interview Cris Comerford, the White House Executive Chef?

Well I promised to share the video with you once it was live and now it is!


(If you're in an RSS reader you may need to click through for the video to work)

Kids.gov is one of the websites I work on, and as part of our career spotlight series, we do short interviews with people throughout the government who have cool jobs. Think people like the Executive Chef of the White House, the people who design U.S. currency and animal keepers at the National Zoo.

It's definitely one of the more fun parts of my job. I love getting a behind the scenes look at how people do their jobs and how things really happen.

In fact yesterday, we took a trip to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and got to see how money is designed, engraved and printed.


Holding $320K. That much money is heavy!

Fun Fact: Did you know the designs on most of our dollar bills are drawn by hand by a team of artists?

The videos are mostly for educational purposes for teachers to use in classrooms during their lessons on careers and to expose kids to the wide variety of jobs out there, but they are a lot of fun to watch too. One of my favorites that we've done to date is our interview with the animal keeper at the National Zoo. (If you're interested you can check out that video on our YouTube channel.)

Our video career spotlights are a fairly new endeavor, so if you have feedback or thoughts on what we could be doing better, please feel free to share in the comments.

I love a good book, and my inner nerd always come out when I spend time in a bookstore.

This weekend I stopped into Borders to see if I could snag any good deals as part of their going-out-of-business sale.

I made a bee-line to the business section to see what I could find. I usually get most of my fiction books from the library, but I love owning business books for my personal library.

My bookshelf is currently packed with books on productivity, social media, marketing, etc.


Yes, there's also some running books on there too.

I cut myself off at three books from Borders, but I'm happy with what I ended up with.

• Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office by Lois P. Frankel: I've wanted to read this book for a long time and it was 50 percent off. I cannot wait to start reading this.
• New Girl on the Job by Hannah Seligson: I know I'm a little bit beyond being the "new girl" on the job, but I still feel like there's a lot I could learn from this book. 
• American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld: The one fiction book I picked up.

Other than fiction, business books are my favorite kind of reading. I always read them with a notebook and a pen close by so I can jot down the millions of ideas the books bring to mind.

I can't wait to see what little nuggets of inspiration these books impart. Now I just need to make the time to sit down and actually read them.

What's your favorite book genre? Have you picked up any good reads lately?

One thing I love about the Obamas is they walk the talk.

At least when it comes to food and the problem this country has with childhood obesity.

Michelle Obama's biggest health initiative, the Let's Move campaign, teaches kids to eat more fruits and vegetables and to be active every day. And the First Family follows the Let's Move model by planning their meals each week around what's growing fresh in the garden.

How do I know so much about the Obamas' eating habits? 

Well because yesterday I interviewed the White House Executive chef and she told me so.
 


My coworkers and I were shooting the most recent episode in our Kids.gov Career Spotlight Series and we got to take a trip to the White House and see the kitchen where the food magic happens.


Me, Coqui and Emily waiting to head to the kitchen. Yes my job rocks! 

Executive Chef Cris Comerford was one of my favorite interviews to date. She was smooth on camera, spoke clearly and told some really great stories about how she came to be a chef.

We chatted about how meal planning works in the White House (menus for state dinners are planned months in advance!) and what is currently sprouting in the First Lady's garden. (Lots of peppers and eggplants).



Some things I thought were most interesting: 

• The First Family is dedicated to eating local. They grow lots of their food and what they can't grow they try to get from local farmers. 
• The First Lady manages to grow some food even in the winter, mostly spinach and kale. 
• Bo, the First Dog, doesn't get to eat the leftovers. 

Gratuitous picture of Bo (photo from the White House)

I can't give away all the secrets, but I promise to share the video once it's finished.

If you could ask the First Family's chef one question, what would it be?

All photos in this post are courtesy of my coworker Arlene.

I can't believe BlogHer has come and gone already. I've spent the bulk of the summer looking forward  to San Diego for this conference and I feel like I blinked and all of a sudden it's over. The only thing reminding me that yesterday I was on the West Coast is the serious case of jet lag I'm battling right now.

Here's just a glimpse at some of the awesome things I got to do at the conference.

Ran the BlogHer 5K with some of my favorite bloggers:
Me, Jenn and Shannon


Me and Roni, the fabulous Fitbloggin' founder


Thanks to Kath and Lori for pushing me so hard. I managed to run some awesome negative splits (8:41 | 8:34 | 8:21)

Went to two swanky networking parties at the Hard Rock Hotel:


Took a bootcamp class that kicked my butt. I'm still so sore.

Did yoga on the water.


Explored the Gaslamp Quarter and ate some delicious Mexican food.



Ate Smores!

(Thanks Hershey!)

Hung out with my friends from Sesame Street.


And these random construction workers at the Kudos booth.


Seriously so many of the exhibitors hired male models just to stand in the booth and look nice. I guess that'll happen at an all women's conference. But truthfully I was so intimidated by the beautifulness of the models in the Pepsico booth, I didn't even stop by. True life, I'm awkward.

Met and chatted with Bob Harper.

(He is awesome and gave me some good marathon training tips)

Drank a massive margarita courtesy of Ricki Lake.


Explored the aircraft carriers and military monuments along the waterfront.



This sculpture was my favorite!

Oh yes, and learned a ton. (I mean that was the whole reason I was there.)

It was a whirlwind weekend and I had a wonderful time. This conference is seriously one of the best out there and I hope to attend again next year when it's back in NYC.

For now I'm off to battle jet lag, and get ready for a video interview we are doing this afternoon with White House chef Cristeta Comerford. I've never been inside the White House, needless to say, I'm pretty excited. Did I mention, I love my job? 

Happy Monday y'all!

Normally I don't share a ton of work stuff here, but this is fun and worth sharing.

Yesterday I had my first on-camera professional interview about the blogging platform we use to run our work blog.

(We use Tumblr. The work blog is blog.usa.gov if you're curious.)

Anyway, here's the video. It's pretty short. I appear right around the 35 second mark. For having pretty much no prep time, I think I come off sounding fairly intelligent.

Tumblr opens doors to government agencies from Medill Washington on Vimeo.

You can find the full article about the government using Tumblr to open information to the public, if you're interested.

Happy Thursday! We're sooo close to the weekend!

1. Work is insane. Meetings, meetings and more meetings. Plus meeting prep.

2. My run this morning sucked. Hot, humid, slow and lots of walking. My summer norm. Oh plus my legs felt dead the entire run. Not a good time. Need to foam roll.

3. I so can't wait until this day is over. I've been prepping for this massive meeting today almost all week (and even before that) and I just want it to be done. I'm so looking forward to going home, plopping down on my couch and watching some Big Brother. (Don't judge!)