Catching up

One photo (this whole process is so painful and protracted; I've got about 300 pictures to process and it very well may take me YEARS) of me at the Kennedy Center the weekend before last when I went to see the Phantom of the Opera with a friend and his visiting relatives.

Modesty be damned, I am proud of this photo. I look good.



Bits and pieces of my family are everywhere - a ring from Mom, a bracelet from Grandma, a purse bought when Mom and Dad came to visit and we went to Eastern Market.

I'm majorly jet-lagged - why does it take a week to recover from a three-hour time change? - but hope to post about visiting California last week soon. As well as visiting Michigan, and St. Louis, and Chicago... oh dear. Lots to do!

Father's Day

I remember sitting with my grandfather once, when he came to visit us in Massachusetts when I was little. We were outside next to the garage and he sat down on the wood beams in the ground that edged the driveway, saying, "The sun feels so good on my back." And I remember just sitting there next to him, feeling the sun on my own back.

It's such a simple memory but it's stuck with me for so long - exactly what he looked like, and how small the bushes were next to the house so we were able to sit in the sun. I think he used to call me Princess, and thought Kyle looked like the Little Drummer Boy, or Little Boy Blue. I know he had nicknames for all of us.

Anyway. Happy Father's Day, Dad; this post is most definitely backdated but I'm thinking of you.

Long-overdue holiday photos

From Thanksgiving, possibly my favorite cousins photo yet:

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Christmas Day! Don't we all look so well-behaved?

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A day in Boston with Mom after Christmas (never mind the squirrel that almost attacked me while taking this photo):

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The wreaths at Union Station in DC, 7AM:

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The view from the Francis Scott Key Bridge (there's the Kennedy Center!) at dusk on December 30, 2006:

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I can't believe it's been four months already, and today it finally feels like spring. Lots to look forward to - graduations, a few trips home, a few weddings this summer, and plenty to do in the city. It's a slow day at work (can you tell? 2pm on a Friday and I'm updating a blog?) but I have a friend coming in from out of town and we've already mapped out all the places we're going to eat this weekend.

Because really, isn't that the point of a vacation?

Alka Seltzer Cold medicine, the fizzy kind, doesn't do a whole lot for me anymore but I use it because there's something soothing about watching the tablets dissolve. It also reminds me of a few New Years' ago when Dad came to visit and we went to the new Smithsonian Air & Space museum (I can barely handle typing normal words, so I'm not even going to attempt the real name of it). That was a good day - despite wanting to curl up and die, and despite the lack of real food at the brand-new museum. We had pancakes at an IHOP afterwards, I think.

The next year, we went all out and Mom and Dad came down to party DC-style. Also a good holiday, right down to the bloody Marys at the bar the next afternoon while the Pats played on the big screen.

My coworker gave me her cold but also an extra day to catch up on some work (today), so it's a wash. But I'm a little loopy from sinus pressure and a nasty cough that appeared this morning. Can't wait to go home and curl up under some blankets!

Coworker suggests Nyquil. May raid CVS on my way home.

Looked in the kitchen mirror while I was heating lunch today and realizd I kinda look like death warmed over. That's attractive!

Despite spending most of the weekend on work, I managed to get to a movie and visit the National Cathedral. A friend took me to the morning service - I felt out of place, as usual, but it's always interesting to see. The sermon wasn't too preachy and the hymns we sang made me miss high school choir. Also, I realized just how out-of-practice I am at reading music. Jeez.

Photos to be posted soon. The Cathedral is gorgeous.

Celebrity buzz:

Britney Spears shaving her head - absolutely dominated Saturday news coverage. You haven't watched CNN until you've heard 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' replace their intro music.

Bridget Moynahan pregnant with Tom Brady's baby - scandal for the Golden Boy! I never thought I'd say this (seriously, never) but I much prefer Bridget to Gisele, his current girlfriend. Tom's like the ultimate Boy Scout. If he falls off the wagon and loses focus on next year's Superbowl run, what are the rest of us supposed to do??

Orange Tic-Tacs

When I was in grade school - elementary school or maybe early middle school - I rode the bus home one afternoon when the bus-driver's daughter was riding with her. Somehow I wound up sitting with this toddler in the front seat right behind her mother.

I don't remember her at all, and I don't remember what we said to each other. I'm sure I was as awkward as ever. But we bonded over a box of orange Tic-Tacs - she offered me one, and we passed the box back and forth between us until it was empty.

Strange, the things you think of.

Random musings on a January day at the office

Folger's Cafe Latte Mocha Fusion coffee house beverage mix is no substitute for real coffee, but when you don't have time to run downstairs, it's not half bad.

Ten days into January and it's finally cold enough to warrant hats and gloves. 31 degrees this morning, oh no!

The last two Capitals games I've been to have been fantastic. Both huge wins, goals by the young stars Ovechkin and Semin and others, as well as solid play by the veterans - and last night Donald Brashear got a goal. Donald Brashear! He's like an NHL version of Ryan Priem, Scoring Machine (2 goals in his 4-year BU career)!

The above in English: Donald Brashear does not exist to score goals. He is there to lumber around the ice and slam people into it. He was almost a boxer, but became a hockey player instead. No, I don't know how that happened either.

On walking home from the metro: I may not be much of a runner at the moment, but I challenge anyone to a one-mile dash down crowded city sidewalks. One mile, under twenty minutes. I think that's good. Is that good?

The shitteth has hitteth the fan-eth here at work, so I'm out!