That's what I'm doing these days

While the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, they are at times not as far from the truth as I would like to confess… but so it goes!

Work has been a struggle lately, but we are pressing through despite the hurdles of gross incompetence and laziness (in others, not ourselves, of course) and will eventually overcome. I have even achieved the seemingly unattainable goal of getting my boss interested in SCHIP. Ergo, the professional life, while a headache, is going tolerably well.

But what about the interesting part of life – i.e. what I do when I’m not working, sleeping, or commuting?

To help answer this question, I will solicit the aid of the wonderful invention of the digital camera. (Thankfully, I still have a functional one – after dropping it for the umpteenth time last week, Sarah managed to use her indispensable skills to take it somewhat apart and put it back together, fully functional. I love Sarah.) Unfortunately I don’t have all the pictures I’d like, but I will add others as necessary down the line.

I already digress. Here we go... into the chronicles.

• On agricultural endeavors on a 10-square-foot slab of concrete: I have been dedicated (or something like it) to the cultivation of our front-porch garden this year, and am already enjoying some fruits of my labor. Notably, we planted an herb garden this year (the long, middle pot in the first picture below). We have a nice assortment: basil, chives, peppermint, rosemary, sage, thyme (no parsley to complete the Scarborough Fair line, though), and of course cilantro. We’ve actually had some of the cilantro already as a garnish to some vegetable scampi I whipped up this weekend, and it was pretty good. The plants are already bigger than they are in these pictures. Now if the squirrels would just stay out, I would be far more pleased…

• Planned traverses: in a few weeks (but nary a moment too soon), I am going on a real, honest-to-goodness vacation. Sarah, Ashley, Emily, and I have purchased our (unfortunately not one-way) tickets to Key West for the end of June and beginning of July. I even managed to find a fun (and actually flattering) bathing suit for the occasion. On the really bad days at work, I just remember that I will soon have the opportunity to lay on the beach doing nothing. I never understood why people found that appealing until very, very recently. A week after the excursion to Key West, I will be in San Diego for a few days to witness the nuptials of a dear friend from high school. She’s making me wear a pink dress, but I’ll forgive her eventually. A longer trip home is planned for August, when I’ll fly home after visiting the District.

• Old: two of my good guy friends have turned 27 in the last few months. While that particular landmark still looms well in the future for me, it is still a sobering reminder that my days of being “young for the Hill” are numbered.

• Visitors and local adventures, past and future: May started off with Ashley’s best friend from California coming out for the weekend. A picture I really wanted to put up in relation to this visit is of yours truly passed out on a rock on Maryland Heights, overlooking Harper’s Ferry. Talk about the longest 2.6 miles of my life. Poor Lauren (and Ashley), they probably thought I was going to implode or explode at various junctures of the journey straight up that mountain. And I mean, the incline is like this: / . Seriously. Give me the Sierras any day. At least John Muir understood the concept of switchbacks.

In any event, I have been walking a lot more since then.

But I digress. It was fun to meet and hang out with Lauren – we ate at the Charthouse in Old Town Alexandria for the first time. That was awesome. I’m going back someday… when someone else is paying. ;)

The weekend after Lauren was here, I was anticipating a somewhat low-key weekend to catch up on my personal affairs. But on Thursday night, I was told there would be a surprise for me on Friday. I was intrigued and utterly clueless. When Ashley took me to Old Town Alexandria (not a surprising place to go), I had no idea what to expect. Which was evident when I stopped stone cold in the middle of King Street, blocking traffic, when I saw Allis sitting outside the old Starbucks.

As you can see, I actually did survive the heart attack… and good thing, too! Having Allis for over a week was such a treat. We went to most of the old haunts – Mai Thai, Starbucks, the Holt’s house – and made eggplant parmesan (without the parmesan – Sarah’s idea ;)). Speaking of Sarah, I had the joy of being able to help surprise her regarding Allis’ presence. Sarah had been out of the country on a business trip and had no clue Allis was here. (For awesome pictures and some details of her incredible trip, check this out.) Had it not been for the jetlag, food poisoning, etc., I think she might have had an even more melodramatic reaction than I did. Ashley will dispute whether or not that is possible, but whatever…

We did a lot. With it being a busy work week, I didn't have nearly as much time as I wanted, but we still watched Cold Comfort Farm and Wallace and Grommit, had my "Special Popcorn" (chocolate chips in the mix, melted with hot butter), and went to three bookstores in one day.

One of the most fun days we had was this last Saturday. We went to Eastern Market, looking rather bohemian in our scarves from around the world (India and L____).



Being together again was, quite simply, the best.

As a random side note, I was encouraged to see the number of vendors and patrons at Eastern Market despite the fire a few weeks ago. I have no doubt they’ll rebuild as soon as they humanly can. I still think the saddest part was losing all that ridiculously expensive cheese… sigh…

In any case, Allis had to go back to Connecticut yesterday morning. She's flying back to India at the end of the month. I miss having her here, but I know she's happy in her international adventures, so I am glad for her!

In the future visitors category, we have Ashley's sister in town this weekend, and Michaela following. I feel like we're running a hostel. (Not that we don't want y'all here, I'm just saying we should be included on the brochures sometime soon...!)

'Tis all the updating I have time for now. The girls will be home soon, and I have to put another coat of sauce on the ribs in the oven and get the broccoli and couscous started. Ah, nothing lifts my stress like cooking...