Our DC

 When I first moved to DC, I would spend my weekends exploring museums and bookstores by myself (this was before I met my would-be husband) along the mall and up into Dupont Circle and the U street corridor. If you're ever in the area, don't miss Second Story books, Kramer Books and Afterwords Cafe, Red Onion Books, the dutch renaissance wing of the National Gallery, Dumbarton Oaks, or CakeLove...just to name a few of my favorite places!

We're back and several days later, ahem, I've got some purdy photos to share with you...no thanks in part to my computer that needs a day and a half to process each photo edit I make lately, sheesh! I think I ended up with a handful of good ones out of the hundred or so that my trigger happy fingers took as my goal was to snap some artsy fartsy images for memorie's sake that I wouldn't have normally thought to take when we lived there—funny how that works eh?

 Although DC's Chinatown has pretty much been taken over by chains, there are still some hints of soul and the area holds a special place in my heart as it's where my husband lived when we met.

It can be strange to be back in a place that feels so familiar and start seeing it in a new way. For us, this past weekend felt like we almost never left and were able to pick back up with friends and places as if no time had passed. I felt this pang of heartbreak at one point when I had to forcibly remind myself that we couldn't just walk the couple blocks it would take to get back to our old place in Dupont!

Vintage shopping in Old Town Alexandria before the wedding and capping off the day with mai tais and pad thai back on the other side of the Potamac that evening.

All in all, it was a great trip but very much of a whirlwind so we are glad to have been able to satiate our cravings for all the things we've been missing but also glad to be home and relaxing. I'm so thankful that I now have grad school to come back to, a purpose that makes having to leave a place that feels so much more like home very much worth it at last.

winter finally arrives in DC!

It has been a long wait, but finally, just as January was about to squeak by without a single drop of precipitation, snow has come to DC! I woke up this morning not feeling so well because of some loopy nightmares, but my day was immediately brightened when i opened the shutters of the window to see it falling swift and silently all over our street.

Now, I am from Michigan so I know that those of you in the north will—rightfully—give a chuckle at what DC considers "a whole lot" of snow. If i was still waking up to lake effect snow storms on a daily basis I would indeed be getting a bit tired of the white stuff. But it's rather rare here so there's nothing like a good snow to remind you of what a real winter is!

It's only an inch or so, but for Washingtonians, this is pretty much as serious as the apocalypse itself. For entertainment on nights such as this, we just watch some of the local news around the DC metro area where you will get to see reporters interviewing frightened natives who are stacking up on as much toilet paper and canned goods as they can carry. it's cute really, hehe.

Well, I shouldn't make too much fun though...when summer comes with it's hellish humidity to this old town built on swamp land, karma makes a beeline for me. I may be able to shovel several feet of snow and drive on black ice with the best of them, but the folks in these parts certainly have me beat when it comes to withstanding the august air, so thick with moisture that you'd start to wonder if it could be classified as a liquid! For now then, I'll just shut my trap and enjoy my blankets and hot tea ;)

at the inauguration of our new president

we began our morning at 5am. well, i did anyways because i was too excited to sleep. the alarm came strolling along at 5:30am and we rushed like mad to get out the door in time to meet the rest of our group in dupont circle proper, as arranged the night before.

the light grew as we walked south towards the mall. with each turn we took, with each block we crossed, the crowd around us steadily grew. groups of people dotted the sidewalks, our voices seeming strange with not a single car or horn or traffic cop to mar them on the blocked off streets of downtown. we decided to take a back route through the GW campus and as we neared the vietnam memorial, the crowd of people suddenly seemed to swell. it was truly like nothing i have ever seen before, you just knew the moments ticking away were a part of something so much bigger and were not to be passed without some sense of reflection and awe.



we took up residence just in front of the washington monument. areas ahead, which were closer to the main event remained open at the time, but the slope upon which the monument rests afforded us a better view than trying to move up would have. and so, directly behind us, sat this behemoth (and maybe inspired be some odd masculine inferiority complex?) monument.


but we had hours to wait out in the cold morning air and we bided our time with snacks we'd brought, hot chocolate from nearby vendors, and much jumping.dancing.bouncing around just to keep our limbs from freezing over. John and i even had our obama cookies (which were delicious), given to us by a friend who, with so many others in the city over the past week, was wishing "happy inauguration!" with exceptional glee.


finally, finally, the guests of honor began to be announced as they took their seats (maybe we'll get up there next time...). I was only a little surprised when Cheney's arrival provoked more boos than Bush's. while i have not a single drop of faith in either of them, boos just didn't seem in line with the message of the day. seriously america, stay classy. this guy with the t-shirt on his head obviously understood this as well, haha.


the oath of office, the beautiful poem which was read, the much anticipated presidential speech flew by. the applause from so many people gathered in one moment thundered across the mall and it was quite clear no one had a single further thought of their icy toes and stiff legs. Never so keenly have i felt history write such bold strokes right before me and never before have I dared to think we might not have only sworn in a new president, but a real Leader.


and so it was. the people slowly (and i mean sloooooowwly) began to spread out away from the mall, back to their homes and hotel rooms. how often, if ever again, will I see such a vast array of humanity gathered together peacefully under the strength of such ideas and hope?


i'm sure the way ahead for the country is going to be long and probably more difficult than we would hope for. But I think we all just may have been a small part of something that I truly hope will be passed on with continued vigor to generations ahead as they continue the constant task of being a better and truer people, despite our many differences.