Julia: I am from Denver and moved to DC in 2014 without a job, right after graduating with my masters in public policy because I love this city. I’d spent three college summers interning in DC and knew I wanted to be here. I moved into an apartment that I actually found through Gather’s housing board.
Julia: I moved into this beautiful, special apartment in Dupont Circle. It was a two bedroom apartment that was converted into a four bedroom in 2009 by a group of Jewish girls. They kept a kosher kitchen, and the apartment has since been passed down from Jewish girl to Jewish girl since 2009. I think to date, almost everyone who has moved in found out about it through Gather’s housing board. I’m not being paid to say this! In my time there I lived with 10 different women, and am still friends with all of them.
Julia: I volunteered on the Obama campaign in 2008, and that’s where I started getting into policy and politics and how they are intertwined. I volunteered on a number of campaigns and government offices after that. After graduating with a masters in public policy, I worked doing natural oil and gas policy, and now work as a small woman-owned consulting firm called WWC, where my clients have been the US State Department and Navy.
Julia: It would be a sunny spring-time day after the cherry blossom rush but before humidity hits. I’d go for brunch in the morning, likely at Boqueria. Then, I’d go on a monument walking tour of DC. I have a special route I like doing whenever people visit me in DC. It starts in Dupont, goes to the White House, then past the White House to the Washington Monument, then to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and then around the corner to the FDR Memorial, to the MLK Memorial, back to the Mall, then through the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. If you have it in you, we’d then walk to Baked and Wired in Georgetown for a cupcake. I’d eat at Sakana in Dupont, which is my favorite sushi restaurant. I’d end the day in Kramerbooks, followed by a White Ford Broncos concert.
Julia: I am getting married this year in August! I’m very excited about that. I’m also excited for a new election and being able to get a fresh start.
Julia: Being busy is relaxing for me. I run a book club, we read books written by women and meet once a month. I am also involved in the ADL’s Glass Leadership Institute this year, I’ve been taking weekly Hebrew classes, and volunteer as a Sixth & I ambassador where I help out at their events.
Julia: I had a bunch of friends who were moving away from DC because this city is very transient, and I wanted to find an organized way to get all of my friends together. I sent out an email to my girlfriends and said we should start a book club, I told them to bring a friend, and made the only parameter that we read books written by women because I had read an article that women authors aren’t paid as much – so I figured let’s have women support other women. We read a variety of types of books, from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood to Becoming by Michelle Obama, and we just read City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. I send out a Google poll for people to vote on the book we read and a Doodle poll to select the meeting dates. We meet every month where we talk about the book, drink wine, and eat cheese.
Julia: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Educated by Tara Westover and Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens.
Julia: My mom. She always made Judaism so fun and important for me growing up.
Julia: Fun is sure to be had!
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