back in the 703

I arrived back in Virginia late Monday evening. Since my return I have been heavily involved in the following two things: TH time and Jenny/Lizzy time.

It's been 4 days since school went on break and I feel like time has stopped. It's weird waking up with the feeling of "I can do whatever I want today and forGET you, school!" Seriously. I feel so unproductive and it's starting to get to me. I don't know how people don't work/school/family every day. Even vacation usually gets tiresome - after a few days of doing nothing, I get a little stir-crazy. (This is not a call for no more vacations, friends.)

So after getting into Virginia, TH met me on the train platform - very romantic way to see your Other for the first time in forever (read: 9 days). We went to DC to catch the Screen on the Green only to realize it was not going on any longer. That realization came after exiting from the L'Enfant metro stop and getting lost in a graveyard of bureaucratic building (really, we couldn't find our way out for about a half hour), so we just chalked it up to a "lovely night to walk around the city" until we both started becoming crazed with hunger and there were no restaurants in sight. Back to VA to eat. Food.

Tuesday I spent the day with Jenny and Lizzy! I picked her up and we stashed all the baby stuff into TH's car and went to the mall. El mallo. We got lizzy some cutie girl clothes and helped her become comfortable with running around in the play-area. She was really scared at first, but then just threw caution to the wind and PLAYED.

After a little while, Gramma Debdeb met up with us, and then TH later on. It was so fun to be with my family and TH! I don't see these people nearly as much as I would like to. We tried to help TH pick out an expen$ive $uit, but to no avail. Boys clothes shopping is difficult. It is an arena I am completely unfamiliar with.

The best part of the day was going out to the cars to switch all the baby stuff out of TH's car into Gramma's car. TH had not seen the taking over of the baby stuff that had happened to his precious car. Car seat, fruit loops on the floor, strollers, and a baby crib. He was like - oh...this has never happened in my car before. I think he was mildly nervous with all the baby stuff just blatantly taking over his car. Naturally.

Today's agenda? Well considering how it is 1:30 and I am still in bed, this day might not be full of much more then laying around, maybe I'll go out for a walk or something (yes, I am slowly turning into an old geriatric woman.)

So yes, I am here atleast until next weekend. Let's hang out, Virginia friends!!!

youngest sister is all married now. MARRIED.

Lizzie and Jenny visit Gnomie

Ohhhhh I love me some Lizzie Time!!







Come visit me in NY! Looks like Lizzie already loves big apples...

I know its Tuesday

I didn't have time yesterday to post about the weekend, but today...well today I don't either. But I don't care as much as I did yesterday about working. Anyways.

So this weekend brought the influx of my dear sister, Jenny! And her beautiful, adorable, hilarious baby - Lizzie. The two of them and my dad came up to DC on Friday afternoon to check out cherry blossoms, museums, and the like. I met up with them after work and WOW it was so good to see them! My Dad is the best and my sister is beautiful and my niece is so yummy I want to bottle her up and save her for always.

We left the Mall and made a quick stop by Eastern Market to obtain some pastries and drinks, headed back to my house and got pizza, watched Friends, watched Lizzy dance to Gilmore Girls, and play inappropriate scrabble. R1 and Leslie joined for scrabble. High points for most inappropriate word. I say it is a tie between R1's "Fbbbtt" and Jenny's "Ironi"(its inappropriate cause it's spelled wrong. It was so strange and wonderful to see a babys little feet walking around the house. It brought such a cozy feeling to our home. Lizzy snacked on my Nilla Wafers and made the bold choice of dipping them in roasted red pepper hummus. I appreciate her highly developed baby palette. She giggled, babbled, crawled, chewed, screamed with joy, and -most importantly - made her presence known during our scrabble game. Jenny - I can't find the Z. If you find it..."laying around"...in the next day or so, I'd like you to just keep it. Please.

After the baby and her entourage left - R1, Iggy and I took off to Velvet Lounge to see some local, um, punk bands. I think. I don't know what type of music it was but I'm going to peg them as The Clash + early Queen / hair metal bands. Because that was R1's and Iggy's combined categorization. It was fun - I saw some old friends hanging out - the old standbys. We stayed out until 3AM and came home and CRASHED.

Saturday R1 and I had yummy toast and brie for breakfast and decided to go visit the Charlottesville clan with Jen, Lizzy and Dad. R1 had to do some maintenance work on his car and got all dirty and greasy under the hood. Holla. I hung out inside and found an apartment for the summer in NY!! Its only a sublet, but its completely furnished and I'll have a private room like 8 blocks from campus. I'm so relieved. After we finished our respective duties, we took off for a loo-ooong road trip to C-ville. May I just state for the record that I see why people believe Northern Virginia and the rest of the state should be two seperate states. My goodness. People are wiggidy wack in the south.

We finally arrived (after nearly 3 hours of driving) and hung out with babies, babies, and brothers, and sisters(in-laws), and papas, and cameras. I don't have any pics on this computer, but I'll definitely post some later. It was so nice seeing everyone and catching up on exciting news (finishing and starting school programs) and watching Abby and Lizzie play together. For a glimmer of a moment, I thought - you know maybe I do want a baby. But then someone always gets a dirty diaper or throws a tantrum and my dreams once again return to reality wherein I am a mid-twenties professional-cum-grad school student. And I live in huge cities where nobody knows their neighbors and smog isn't pollution - its a welcome blanket of protection from the suburbs.

I digress.

We left late saturday and returned to my house to watch...AIRPLANE!! R1 picked it up and it was pretty hilarious. Don't call me Shirley. Went to bed, woke up early the next morning and walked to Eastern Market to play with cameras and buy food for dinner and beautiful flowers for the entry table. Had a lazy sunday after the walk - watched The Queen, took a nap, made some curried fish and quinoa salad and grilled zucchini, then I fell asleep around 10:00. I was beat!

It was a fabulous weekend and I love and miss my family! I went to Dads house last night to spend a little more time with Jenny and Lizzy. They're so much fun and I seriously think you guys should consider moving back. Lizzy makes me laugh because of things like this:
1. Concerned with people eating noodles - how do they get slurped up so fast?
2. Is learning to talk and says "Yedllooo" for hello.
3. Responds with a "yeah" for things she likes.
4. Throws back her head when she laughs at things. Hilarious.
5. Loves healthy foods - chickpeas, tomatoes, green peas, etc.
6. Loves her momma so much - she wants to be anywhere Jenny is. It's so cute. Another thing that makes me want to have a baby. But I won't! I'm 25! And a student! With no husband in sight! Etc, etc.

Pictures to come later...

more pansy than a one-year old

My niece, Lizzy, who will turn 1 next month(!!!) is currently at my sisters house in SLC. With mom in tow, of course. And dad.

Anyway my sister, Blondie*, has a pet tarantula named Bernardo Alberto. She has had it for awhile, and it was in residence when I went to visit her this past summer. I had to sleep in the same room as it and I had nightmares the entire week. Especially because kitties would come and pounce on me every couple hours and I thought it was the spider. The spider is my most intense intense phobia. I am so scared of the damn things, I can't even squash a baby one without shrieking. While I was visiting Blondie, she waved Bernardo's "shed" in front of my face. I thought it was the actual spider and I literally started hyperventilating and sharted on her new couch. I almost died. All while she was laughing with delight.

So Lizzie is down there this weekend to pay a visit to the ole SLC. Apparently she loves Bernardo Alberto. Jenny said she went up to the cage and starting waving to the spider. Like they were FRIENDS or something. My niece is seriously whack. But I totally love her. Mad respect, Lizzie bear.


* I was informed after the publishing of this post that Blondie has now become a red head. I'm sorry. It's hard to keep up. She changes hair colors faster than I go through rolls of toilet paper. Which is fast, what with all the sharting.