a busy week

The past week has been a blur of doctor's visits, the aftermath of immunizations (it's amazing how crappy you can feel when you've got the spawn of 6 various diseases coursing through your body), a day spent in DC, mid-week matinees, a trip to the beach (and its aftermath--fly bites and a killer sunburn), last minute changes at work, a visit to this fabulous club, and preparations for a whirlwind trip to NYC this weekend. My list of final goodbyes has increased but I still have dozens more to go and my list of things to do continues to increase despite all the time I spend doing things on said list.  I've narrowed my stack of books at work down to 3, I ate the last of the Holland cheese and Belgian chocolate, and I've made the reservations for the hotel stay on the first leg of the journey across the country. This is real folks. It's actually happening and it's starting to freak me out a bit. This time next week I'll be staring down the barrel of the last day of work.
 

Also on tap for next week? I need to finish re-packing, work on my TESOLS class, and create an amazing cross-country road trip playlist (suggestions welcome!!) in between final goodbye dinners, wrapping up things at work, Frank Turner in concert, and one last performance at Wolf Trap just to name a few. Deep breaths, I can do this!  What are you up to?

The Natural History Museum

The National Archives Building

The Holocaust Museum with the gussied up Washington Monument in the background

Inside the American History Museum

Ponies frolicking in the waves at Assateague National Seashore

a to do list

I've got a really crowded month trying to squeeze in a million and a half things before I leave the DC area for good. Some things I've not had a chance to do before and some things I need to do one more time. Here's a quick highlight of some of the cool things I've had a chance to do in the last couple of weeks.  There will be more to come, never fear!

A last visit to the Shenandoah’s to hike Old Rag which is one of the most popular and difficult hikes on the East Coast. The 2500 ft climb and mile or so of rock scramble is pretty intense and makes you feel as if you've really earned your views from the top.

A last performance at the Kennedy Center. Great music, silly story, fabulous tap dances.

One last hike at Great Falls, Billy Goat Trail.

A first/last visit to the Marine Barracks for their evening parade with the silent drill team and The President's Own marching band. It was quite the spectacular event, typical of the patriotism and spirit of the DC area.

And a visit to the tidal basin at night to view the rising of the super moon (too bad I don't have a camera worthy of capturing it!)

So many things I'm going to miss about this place! Sometimes I have to remind myself of the great things to come to keep from tearing up. *sigh*

finishing a task.

I spent the weekend packing up 7 years’ worth of accumulated stuff, praying that it would all squish into the 5x7 shipping pod lingering in the parking lot out front and trying not to cry. I’m really excited for this new adventure but every now and then it really sinks in just what it’s going to mean.

I’ve struggled with homesickness ever since I got here. I came out anticipating staying just a year (I’d only taken a leave of absence from my job) and then once that year passed, really felt strongly that I needed to stay. I’ve toyed with going back west many times and fought with my love of this place and my dissatisfactions with it over and over and over. Now that I’m actually making the move I’m thinking of all the things and places and people I will miss so much when I’m gone and it breaks my heart just the tiniest bit.

Stage one of the move severed the first of the ties that bind me to this place I never thought I would call home. Thinking I might need extra time to sublease my room and having limited scheduling flexibility I decided to bail from my place a few weeks early. I have some wonderful friends who are letting me crash on their couch til I go. So, the majority of my things are making

their way across the country without me. I’ve said (a temporary) goodbye to old roommates and my corner of the world to begin my months of displacement and upheaval, and am gearing up for the next emotional step of doing so many things here for the last time in preparation for saying a final farewell. The emotions are high on all counts; excitement, nervousness, reluctance, anticipation, sadness, gratefulness. It’s going to be a wild ride for the next few weeks. Here’s hoping I make it through in one piece!

looking back at a to do list and making a new one.

I took a moment to review my New Year's Resolutions earlier this month. The half-way mark is always a good time to reevaluate. (Unless you have fallen completley off the wagon and have nothing to show for your hours of carefully documented goals, then it just makes you feel like a failure!)

 

Ok, not a complete failure. I've made a bit of progress in some areas (my scripture study, shockingly enough has improved leaps and bounds) but other areas, well, you'd never know I'd made a goal for as little as I've tried to do anything about them. Let's take a look.

  

• Visit 5 new states and 1 new country--I've got the goal to visit all 50 states by the time I'm 40 and all 7 continents (and at least 25 countries) before I die. The way things are going down this year I doubt I'll get more than 1 new state in but I'll have 1 new continent and at least 4 countries for sure.
• Start a bookclub--check! (it still counts even if I'm abandoning it, right?)
• Take a yoga class--check! (though unfortunately I've had to abandon that too)
• Play the piano every day--uh, what I really meant was 'look at the piano every day but never actually touch it, ever'...check!
• Finish a book--writing one, that is. Hmm, I did do a bit of work on it so that's got to count, but I'm not really any closer to finishing than I was in January. I am hoping for some good time to work on this come August though.
• Catch up my scrapbook--uh, nope. 2 years behind and counting!
• Attend at least one performance per month--done! Though I haven't made it to as many concerts as I'd like. Curse all you concert buddies who moved on me! I blame you! :)
• Take a photography class--nope
• Make pickles--wha?
• Complete a Pinterest project each month--if by project I meant spending hours and hours pinning stuff and then never looking at it again then I'm a winner!
• Be on time--Ok, this one I really did put some effort into at first. I'm at least more conscious of the times that I'm late even if I haven't quite transitioned that into actually being punctual.
• Stop swearing--again, I've made a bit of effort. It still comes spewing out unbidden as a gut reaction to various circumstances but I've gotten better at thinking before I speak and more often than not I think of something besides a curse to say.

Now that I look at it it's really not too shabby after all. Often the goals that are more project oriented are easier to accomplish and dominate in the finished results category while the character building/habit forming type take a backseat or get abandoned altogether and kind of the opposite has happened this time around. There's added proof in the accomplisment of the biggest and least defined goal of all which has taken more of my time and mental energy than I'd anticipated but has surprised me in so may ways. On one sheet I had it listed as 'make a decision and stick with it' and somewhere else I wrote down 'find a new job'. Those were not necessarily the same goal to begin with but they've morphed into my Thailand decision and I'm excited and hopeful with what else will come with that.

So, this brings me to the next, and more immediate quest. Summer goals.

I've got about 6 weeks left here in DC and while there will be a flurry of packing and last minute preparations for Thailand I've also decided I need to make an effort to squeeze in some last minute fun as well. It is summer after all. And summer should be filled with all things good. Things like lemonade and movies under the stars and trips to the beach. There's not enough time to do all the things I'd like to and I'm not even going to start on the list of things I want to do one last time before I leave but here are the few things I'm going to do to make this summer count.

• frozen custard at the Dairy Godmother
• screen on the green
• watching a parade
• seeing the monuments by moonlight
• a trip to the beach
• a concert under the stars
• fireworks

What's on your list?

a change in the weather.

Spring has sprung! And it's about time!

This weekend saw a shift in temperatures and finally the blossoms and buds are out in full force and the sun seems to have a bit of warmth in its rays again. (Unfortunately the heating/cooling system at work doesn't shift quite so easily so we've still got the heat blasting to counteract the unseasonably cool temps.  Translation=work felt like a sauna.  And not in a good way.)

But the scenery more than makes up for that.

a day spent wandering.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go into the District and spend the whole (drizzly, cold) afternoon wandering aimlessly through several museums before meeting some friends for dinner. My first stop was the Corcoran Gallery where I drooled over Degas, Monet and Rafaelli. Their collection includes modern and contemporary art, photography and the decorative arts, but I tend to  prefer the European myself.

Next up was a visit to the Renwick Gallery whose collection focuses on the American crafts and arts. There I was amazed by Wendell Castle's Ghost Clock, (all carved from a single piece of wood and made to look like a clock draped in a cloth...fantastic!) and somewhat haunted by Karen LaMonte's Reclining Dress.

Then it was off to the Old Post Office and a quick tour of the clock tower (too bad the views were obscured a bit by all the clouds) before making it to the National Portrait Gallery.  They had a wonderful exhibit of Civil War art; some paintings of battlefields and bivouacs, some of Matthew Brady's photography but a few of my favorites were some scenic views whose subjects had nothing to do with the War itself but were painted in the era and had some strong underlying symbolism.

There were four of them; one depicting a double rainbow arched over a jungle chasm signifying the reuniting of the two halves of the country, another shows a volcano in the distance ready to burst as tensions in the country mounted to a boiling point, and another showed the aurora borealis--the northern lights a symbol of the North's cause.

My favorite though was a painting of great icebergs, painted off the coast of Newfloundland. It was first displayed at the outset of the war and was proclaimed as the most splendid work to come out of the country and a reminder of what the country (as a united whole) could create.  Having seen glaciers and bergs in person I was awestruck by his ability to capture their majesty, enormity and fragility all with a few brushstrokes. I was swallowed up in the grandness of the painting that stood nearly as tall as I and twice as long. I could almost feel the cold Arctic air on my face (or maybe that was just the air outside blowing in through the open door!)  I confess it made me a tad homesick. (Do you call it "homesick" if it's for a place you've only visited briefly?!)

(I've stolen the image from this website about the artist, Frederic Edwin Church. Normally I'd just send you there to look at it but I wanted you to be able to see it without scrolling through all of them to get there --but know that it doesn't even begin to do the actual work justice. And I encourage you to scroll and see the rest of his work when you've got a few minutes.)

It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon and made me grateful to live in a city where I could so while away my time.  What is your favorite way to spend a free afternoon?

a year end list.

I'm a sucker for lists and love the 'year in review' shows on TV and articles that seem to show up in every media venue known to man. Not one to be left out in the cold I'm shamelessly stealing the idea from everyone who has already posted theirs the last few days. Here is a brief overview of some of my favorite happenings throughout the months of 2012.

JANUARY

The once in a lifetime trip to Antarctica.  (really the list could stop there, it doesn't get much better than this!)

FEBRUARY

A behind-the-scenes visit to the Library of Congress

MARCH

A fantastic St. Patrick's Day brunch

APRIL

Spring in the District

MAY

Camping in Pennsylvania

JUNE

Hanging out with the cutest nephews in the world

JULY

Nats games!

AUGUST

Road trip to Rhode Island

SEPTEMBER

The US Open

OCTOBER

Running a 5K

NOVEMBER

Hosting Pie Day

DECEMBER

Capping off a year of great performances and concerts with a few holiday shows

It always gives me pause to see just how far I've come and what has happened in the space of 12 short months. Lives can change in the blink of an eye and yet sometimes the longer increments of time seem to fly by without any noticeable changes at all. I'm grateful for the various outlets I have for keeping track of all that I've done, the things I've seen and experienced and learned that help me keep life a bit more in perspective when I feel as if I'm stuck or not accomplishing all I'd hoped to accomplish. Sure, there are a ton of things still left on my list but I've crossed off quite a few too! Here's to a new year, new lists and new experiences. Tune in tomorrow for the latest edition.

Happiness is...having a natural sanctuary.

Every now and then you just need to avoid reality.  I would have given anything to take a drive up the mountains today. To wind slowly to the pinnacle, to rise above it all, to look down on everything below, to gain an elevated perspective, to clear my head.  But as I'm hundreds of miles from anything that can realistically be termed a mountain I had to make do with what I have at my disposal...a river.

This afternoon I bailed from all of my duties and responsibilities and drove down the George Washington Parkway along the Potomac River. I pulled over, found a bench and spent a couple of hours letting the breeze blow through my hair, the sun kiss my face and my worries float down stream with the rest of the debris in the current.

Some days you just need to commune with nature and empty your mind of everything else. Today was one of those days.

Happiness is...a day in orbit.

I have a friend who is enamored of planes and space ships and things with big engines that soar and fly and circle the stratosphere. This past weekend he and I spent several hours wandering through the Udvar-Hazy air and space museum ogling the evolution of manned and unmanned flight from the earliest of attempts up through the space program and military gadgets of today.

Thanks to his extreme knowledge and passion I got a personal and in-depth tour and explanation of nearly all the vehicles on display.  (It's always fascinating to hear information from someone who is truly excited about something, their enthusiasm is contagious and you can't help but be excited about it too!)

The highlight by far was the newly arrived Space Shuttle Discovery. I missed the grand flyover last week, its final spin through the air over the city on the back of the jumbo jet, (darn that job that keeps me inside and on a schedule), but was able to witness it in all its used glory; chipped paint, after burn streaks and all. I have to say it was pretty impressive. It's been to space 39 times and is the first of the retired craft to find a home on display, signaling the end of an era.

Part of me would love to sail above the sky, among the infinite blackness (and the other part of me got claustrophobic just thinking about it!) There's something magical about space and the endless possibilities found among the stars. It makes me feel both grand and insignificant at the same time. I'm barely a speck in the vastness that is the universe and yet I marvel at the mechanics and intricacies that make up humanity and our world within that vastness. To me it bears testimony of a divine and omnipotent creator who cares for both the smallest minutia and the broadest scope. One day perhaps I'll have the chance to view things with His eye, to see the perfection of the spheres in our solar system, to skip among the Milky Way and slide upon the rings of Saturn discovering the truths of life on other planets and comprehending eternities. But for now I guess I'll have to be content with my occasional journeys in the passenger planes above the clouds to exciting, if merely terrestrial, locales.

Happiness is...a stroll amongst the cherry blossoms.

Sometimes I forget that I live here.  Well, the past few weeks I haven't really 'lived' anywhere but my couch, which totally doesn't count.  But I finally had a couple of nights of semi-restorative sleep and fell prey to the enticements of a friend to go out after work and enjoy the cherry blossoms. And as I wandered through the hordes of people (tourist season is already upon us), past the monuments of stone and water I was struck again by the beauty of this amazing city that I sometimes take for granted. It's only a 15 minute or so car ride from my house across the river to the heart of it all, depending on traffic, but too often that river can feel as vast as an entire continent instead of just a short bridge span long. I definitely don't venture over it often enough.

This year marks the centennial of the gift of the 3,000 cherry trees from Japan that line the tidal basin around the Jefferson Memorial. Each year there are countless predictions of peak bloom time around which a month-long festival is planned.  There are parades and dances, concerts and special restaurant menus, races and tons and tons of people.  It's quite the extravaganza.

In past years I've been able to see the blossoms at sunrise and in the height of the day's sun, but this year we hit it just prior to sunset and it was spectacular. The opening ceremony and official kick-off of everything isn't until Sunday but because of our unseasonably warm winter the peak bloom time has already begun. The air was heady with the scent of the millions of blooms and warm enough that I didn't even need a jacket until well after the sun had set. The sun was dipping low in the sky as we set out throwing a golden glow over everything it touched (though it did make picture taking a little difficult!) And then the night came on slow and dark but sprinkled with the lights reflecting off the white stone of all the monuments and memorials. (I love DC at night!)

At the far end of the basin is the newest addition to the memorials, one for Martin Luther King, Jr. It's had its share of controversy in its short existence which I can understand, but it's also quite striking and impressive standing 30 feet high or so. (And seeing it made one more thing I can cross off my DC bucket list!)

(BTW-If you've never been to the nation's capitol I would heartily encourage you to do so, and to visit during spring when she's dressed in her finest and bursting all over with loveliness.)

It had all the makings of a practically perfect evening and went a long way to restoring some energy and some much needed faith in the world and my place in it. Now if I can just figure out how to slow down time enough to get done all of the things I've neglected the last little while and still find time to stop and smell the roses cherry blossoms occasionally...any ideas?

Happiness is...a random concert.

I have a friend who has an amazing ability to discover semi-unknown and quirky bands. She's introduced me to a whole host of tunes and styles and new faves.

K and I (along with S) met in DC tonight in the basement of a BBQ eatery where we enjoyed the standing room only sounds of Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three. They are quite the entertaining little group with a great old-timey sound. (I'm a teeny bit enamored of the harmonica player.) Check it out.

**Bonus**As there was no cover charge it was a great night's entertainment had all for just the price of my metro ride. I love this city!