The Treasure Hunt

Big Sky Girl and I decided to venture outside our normal routine of meeting up for dinner. We wanted some adventure. We discussed rowing, rock climbing, golf, etc. But BSG came up with an even more unique activity . . a treasure hunt.

Your team can be as big as you like, so all week we attempted to recruit more team members . . for the fun of it . . and to hopefully increase our chances of winning by adding more brain power. For some reason, people didn't jump at the offer. I mean, when is the last time someone asked you if you wanted to go on a treasure hunt? It sounds a little weird.

Fortunately, BSG convinced her friend, Tim, to join our team and we showed up at Lafayette Park in tennis shoes and tank tops ready to go. We were given a treasure map, several challenging clues, a black light, and a cipher wheel for cracking codes. And the race began.

After over two hours of speed walking, and sometimes jogging around the District in search of answers to our clues, we had aching legs, huge blisters, and were drenched in sweat. BSG's patience was beginning to wear off, as some of the clues were leaving us completely stumped. As we went from museum to garden to memorial, reading and re-reading the riddles that would lead us to our next clue, I realized how dense I am when it comes to history and how much of D.C. I haven't seen. Fortunately, between the brains of BSG and Tim and my attempts to look things up on my Blackberry, we were doing a pretty good job . . or so we thought.













(Stopping for two seconds as we wait to cross the street.)

Although we were the first team to finish, we were shocked to receive the Shell of Shame for coming in last place! We hadn't picked up any keys or golden coins hidden along the way and had called in for answers too many times to still be competing for first place. *Sigh*

I don't know how many miles we ended up walking, but it was certainly more than enough to make up for our second trip to Gifford's that week. Sitting there, eating the most delicious ice cream in Washington, I started to forget the hell that our day had been . . and there was talk of actually doing it again. . . . I think I'll at least let my blisters heal first.















*Read Big Sky Girl's account of the day. She'll be blogging about it soon.

Dinner and Designer

I'm home at 10:30 on a Friday night. And it feels good.

Tonight was the perfect Friday evening. I headed to Georgetown with Leigh after work to use my $50 gift certificate at Clyde's!! Leigh and I were able to treat ourselves to a great meal, both ordering pork and corn on the cob . . along with beef carnitas to start and a brownie sundae with Haagen-Dazs to finish. I want to give the person who gave me the gift certificate a big hug right now, because that was such a treat!

Somehow, Leigh and I wandered into Anthropologie after dinner. It wasn't my doing. We found some delicious smelling candles and each decided to buy one. As we headed to the register, I heard myself say, "As long as we're here, why don't we go downstairs and check out the sale rack?" I wasn't really worried about finding anything, because in Georgetown, especially at this store, it's either too pricey (despite the sales) or they don't have my size - that's what happens when freshman girls with money go to school two blocks away. Much to my surprise, everything in the sale room was an additional 40% off the already marked-down price. Sanctuary, Michael Stars, eberjey . . all totally affordable and in my price range! (Except that my price range is $0 right now, considering the fact that I lack nothing and summer is coming to an end soon.)

"I'm only buying one thing," I yell back to Leigh, as head to the fitting room, arms full of clothing.

You know how the story ends. I put the candle back and walk out with 4 very cute items.

I have the entire walk across Key Bridge to try to justify what I've just done. And about one block from home, the lightbulb flashes in my head . . I'm going out of town soon for an entire week! And it's all on the company! Which means, you know, that I'll be saving money! No metro fare, which is a wopping $2.60 a day . . and no eating lunch out, which since I've started my 'Subway and a banana' kick is about $4.50 a day. Still, I won't be running errands or going to the dry cleaner, so I could almost equal out what I bought with what I'll save by being gone next week. Phew!

Jessica

I just listened to Jessica Simpson’s new CD. What the heck? It’s sounds like a bunch of pop dance songs that have gone synthesizer-happy. I'm convinced she couldn’t have enjoyed making this album. What about her beautiful voice? It doesn’t showcase it at all. I continue to be more and more disappointed in her choices . . both personal and professional. Wait, wait! I take that back. I definitely still approve of all fashion and beauty choices, (unless they involve too much cleavage or pumping more collagen into her lips). In fact, I kinda want to dye my hair to match her color on the cover of her album.

Recap

All my blog has become is a weekend recap. I feel like such a bore.

Last weekend's highlights were:

-Dinner at Cheesecake Factory with roommates KT and EB and Bible study girls

- Dancing at Club Five (except for the fact that I don't do techno, which was mostly what it was) . . . (oh, and the fact that we went with a guy who is incredibly good-looking, smart med student, built . . and he knew it)

- Cooked dinner with KC, our neighbor Black Belt, and a Bible study girl (who just could be my new good friend, because she is so nice and fun). Black Belt did a few kicks for us, at my request . . ok, I pretty much begged him to do it . . along with the splits . . Then, we laughed after he left.

- New friend, MC, and I went to a Southern Baptist church Sunday morning bright and early at 8am . . . and it was an hour away!

- The rest of my Sunday I was trying to recup from the weekend. Napping made it worse.

This week was great. I don't know why I dread the week starting when I like my job, but I do.
Today, I joined a women's Republican group. My co-worker, Good Ol' Boy, invited me to a luncheon they were having. He was the only male there. It was no accident. It was strategic. The guy has lunch with a different girl every day. I made friends with a girl minutes upon arriving and once we returned to the office, he wanted her email address. "She is my friend!" I exclaimed. "She's not just another girl for you to have lunch with." Sure enough, he found her info online and shot her an email . . which I must say was good. He's good. He's smooth. He's witty. He makes me want to puke.

Anyway, I feel pretty special now that I'm a "member" of a group. This means I'll get special invites and discount prices to events. Woo-hoo. I got the first invite today at the luncheon. It was in a pretty envelope and I knew before I opened it that I wanted to go. A fundraiser gala . . at the Ritz! How fun! Only, this one doesn't really involve a discount . . hence the word fundraiser. In fact, it's $175 to get in the door. Hmm, plane ticket home? or ticket to gala that I'll have to buy a new dress for? Tough decision.

25

A friend once told me she had a hard time with 25. The once independent, self-sufficient woman found herself still single while everyone around her was marrying and starting their own families. So I was a little nervous about the number myself. And maybe that will be me at 26, but so far 25 feels good. And the majority of my friends are married and starting families, including the friend I mentioned above, but I’m not sad that’s not me. Sure, I wonder if their kids will be too old to play with mine someday or if we’ll ever feel at the same place again. But I am where I am right now .. and I like it. I sometimes hope that my contentment with singleness doesn’t mean it’s going to last too much longer, but it’s out of my hands.

I’m so glad that I didn’t just stay in an OK job and wait for some guy to come along so I could settle down and have babies. I used to want that . . because I didn’t know what the other option was. I didn’t have a clue what job would make me happy. . what job would utilize my abilities and give me a sense that I was contributing to something important. I discovered that is what I really wanted, though . . to do it on my own first. To be a part of something big. Something big can be different for everyone, I suppose, but for me this is it.

Being away from home, I didn’t have high expectations for my birthday, but even if I had, I wouldn’t have been disappointed. I received:
- an early morning voicemail from my friend singing me ‘Happy Birthday’,
- e-cards and phone calls throughout the day,
- a huge, gorgeous bouquet of flowers that even the men in my office have been admiring,
- my favorite breakfast sandwich delivered to me by New Girl
- birthday recognition at my business lunch (which I was not excited about, because Asian food is not my favorite)

Leigh had sent an Evite out to my favorite co-workers (4 of them) to have dinner at a new restaurant I’d been wanting to try on the waterfront, called Agraria. Much to my surprise, not only did they all come, but they brought gifts! Leigh got me a cute cable knit sweater from GAP, New Girl bought the most delicious smelling bath products, Vanderbilt bought me a set of stemware from Pottery Barn, and Rochester . . well, he stealthily picked up the tab, which Holy Crap! was at least $400! I mean, we had to have our Italian still water and 3 bottles of South African Chardonnay. And I had to have the ribeye I’d been craving and those delicous mouth-watering heirloom tomatoes to start. But, whoa, had we known he was going to do that, we would not have ordered all of that. He is so great. He is such a generous person like that. He spends no money on himself, but treats people all the time.

(Side note: I know I haven’t mentioned him in awhile, but platonically things are going along great. I have decided that we shouldn’t spend time alone as that will only lead to attachment which is obviously not healthy since it’s not going anywhere. There: the two-second update.)

Ooh, I also received a beautiful black opal necklace from my parents and Uptown Grandma, while Farmtown Grandma gave me money that I put towards a new red leather purse (FYI: red is “in” this Fall).

Tonight, my roommates/Bible study girls and I are going to dinner. EB, who I share a room with, actually shares my birthday! How crazy is that??

The New Hampshire Way

I was just telling Big Sky Girl last night, when we met up for dinner in Georgetown, that I feel so bad for not blogging these past, OMG, 6 days! But I don’t want to blog out of obligation. BSG said, “You should live to blog, not blog to live” which is a good point, unless of course you’re surviving off the paid ads on your site.

Out of the past 6 days, 3 have been fabulous, and the other 3 have been tough because they weren’t fabulous . . and I was PMSing.

I flew to New Hampshire on Friday and had a fantastic 48 hours there, sleeping only 11 of those hours. As I said before, Best Friend’s boy’s family is great! It felt like home . . . not my home, but home.

Friday night, we went to a Christian music festival in the mountains and saw Recycled Percussion. They were incredible! Amazing entertainers. The lead drummer has gotta be the fastest drummer in the world. And now, I secretly want to learn how to beat box.













We went to the Skillet concert, too, as opposed to Mercy Me and Jars of Clay, since I’ve seen them before. I’ve never really listened to Christian rock before, but they were pretty good performers. Did a little headbanging-ha; I didn’t think people did that anymore.

Saturday morning, we headed over to Tom & Lisa’s for a huge, yummy breakfast on their deck. I’m pretty sure I consumed my weight in food. I simply couldn’t decide between the French toast and the egg & cheese English muffins, so I had to have both . . plus potatoes and bacon and strawberries and a blueberry muffin.

We headed down to the family’s beach house just over the NH border in Massachusetts. It was the cutest house with a pretty view of the ocean.













The water was freezing, of course, but we were determined to get in.













BF & I managed to slightly embarrass ourselves by attempting to kick around the soccer ball on the beach with the three brothers, but we totally redeemed ourselves when we got a football in our hands.













BF and her boy went for a stroll on the beach, so his younger bro and I took a bike ride up to Hampton Beach to walk around on the ‘boardwalk’, eat Sal's pizza, and play a few arcade games. I totally won the football game!














That night, we all went down to Boston for dinner and dessert. It was dark out by that time, but seeing just a little bit of the city makes me want to go back! The craziest thing was seeing TONS of rotten fruits and vegetables from the Haymarket just thrown in the street for at least two blocks. City workers use a bulldozer to clean up leftover produce and other debris once Haymarket closes. Apparently, New Girl says that this has been going on since the city began. Take a look at this Boston Globe slideshow.

Sunday morning, we were up bright and early headed up to the mountains to go kayaking. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever get used to the water temperature, but I ended up jumping off the bridge a couple of times and later getting flipped over by Tom & Best Friend. Don’t worry; I retaliated. . which resulted in BF’s kayak going down the rapids without her and us trying to both go down on one! At this point, I was really wishing I’d bought the water camera.













We took a gondola to the top of Loon Mountain for the hot dog festival and a couple of us crawled around in the caves. . something that was clearly intended for small children since the spaces were so tiny.




















Back at the house, BF & I said our good-byes, which was incredibly sad, because I have no idea when I’ll see her next. Maybe Christmas time, but that’s a long time! I’ve been so spoiled hanging out with her the past two weekends.

I’ve loved living in D.C. so far, but I really didn’t want to come back. As I flew home, I wondered when I would feel that way again . . at home. My roommates could tell I was a little down, though, and they said we will definitely hang out and they’re always there to talk, etc. I am so blessed to live with such great girls!

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News . .

For those of you who have been concerned for the emergency room patient mentioned in my previous post . . he'll be fine. The doc says pain killers and antibiotics will take care of him and his member should be able to function perfectly fine in the future. . no question about him keeping the complete package. (Ewww, can't believe I'm blogging about this.)

Tea Partay

This YouTube video is hilarious, because these are the kind of people I occasionally find myself surrounded by:

http://loggedhours.blogspot.com/2006/08/word-up-to-my-to-my-domicilefellows.html

Ouch!

If you’ve taken the pictures to be an indication of how fun my weekend was, then you know I had a good time. Just look at the smile on my face in the picture with Best Friend. I was that happy all weekend.

Not only did I get to hang out with Best Friend, I got to spend time with her boy’s whole family. They were great. In fact, they were so great that I'm flying up to New Hampshire for the weekend to hang out with them! BF will be there, too.

Our weekend consisted of late nights (an all-nighter in fact), an evening at the Air and Space Museum (for the leadership conference the family was attending), some Scrabble (a tradition with BF, her brother, and I), and . . a trip to the emergency room.

We were waiting around at the hotel, hungry and ready for dinner, when someone asked, "What's taking them so long?" There were a few people missing from our party, apparently discussing something serious in the hallway.

It turns out someone was in pain. Not just any pain. Pain "down there". Excrutiating, unbearable pain "down there." Poor guy. All 8 of us made our way to the hospital and waited a good hour for a nurse to see him. As we were sitting there, I looked over and thought I saw tears welling up in his eyes. I didn't know if it was from the pain or perhaps the embarassment of having an entire posse accompany him to the hospital because he had pain in his private part.

After getting situated in a hospital bed to await a doctor, he gave us permission to leave and grab a bite to eat. Once out of earshot, we were all able to make male genitalia jokes to our hearts' content. I'm not sure he'll ever live this one down.

So, all in all, the weekend was a blast, but that trip to the hospital was really the nuts! (Sorry!, I couldn't resist. What can I say . . I'm my father's daughter.)

Weekend Pictures

Best Friend & I

Bringing a little Nebraska to D.C.

Paddleboating in the Tidal Basin