Happy Anniversary to DC and me! Part Two: the Mat edition

The rest of the DC + RKG anniversary week was pretty amazing. Wednesday involved my first Trivia Night at Sixth and I, mostly notable for our abysmal general performance and our rock-star domination of the musical theater round. Thursday evening contained by first Melting Pot experience with Will F., Josh K., and Jason F. Note: I've been waiting to go there since the BOFTY event there that I missed in 8th grade . . . The Melting Pot experience was glorious, and suprisingly enough, the cheese fondue (which was very good) was my least favorite part of the evening -- I LOVED cooking the veggies and meats, and really loved the White Chocolate Amaretto and Milk Chocolate Tiramisu dessert fondue. Great success.

The real highlight of my anniversary week was the weekend, which involved a visit from Mat S., best friend and law student extraordinaire. He met Rachel H. and I on Friday evening at the wonderful MLK Shabbat at Sixth and I (which we loved mostly for the vigorous prayer dancing pre-amidah), and afterwards, Rachel and I introduced him to the wonderfulness that is Teaism (and I introduced them to the extra jolt of happiness in my universe known as the Chai Cinnamon Milkshake).

Saturday was a nice, laid-back day. I volunteered at the Zoo in the afternoon -- it was a pretty exciting day because I was able to find all of the Lemur frogs in one of the tanks, and there were a few young Strawberry Poison frog metamorphs - so little! Mat S. came to the Zoo to check out Amazonia, and then we walked all the way back to my apartment for schnuggling and relaxing. We cooked dinner at Rachel H's -- the highlight was definitely the homemade guacamole, although the delicious salmon and brussel sprouts were a close second. After digesting the enormous amount of food we ate, we went out to Four Peas in Cleveland Park with the lovely gaggle of Emily G, Beth K, and Julie F.

On Sunday morning, we awoke to rain, rain, and lots of rain. I threw on my rainboots, grabbed, an umbrella, and met Mat in Dupont Circle, where we quickly abandoned our very outdoor plans. Farmer’s Market out, indoor cozy brunch in! I’ve been hearing wonderful things about Rosemary’s Thyme for months, and decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. Really, any place inside and warm would have been lovely, but Rosemary’s Thyme has that perfect brunchy feel, which was just what we were looking for. I got the Mediterranean Pide, a flatbread with lots of yummy vegetables and cheese, and with two fried eggs on top. It was very pretty, and needless to say, it tasted as good as it looked.

After brunch, we met up with Will F. for an afternoon of galumphing about the city. We cabbed it to the National Cathedral, where we enjoyed the misty raininess from the comfort of the crypt and church. The National Cathedral is definitely one of my favorite spots in DC – we did miss the tour which was sad, but still had a fun time trying to figure out exactly where President Bartlet walked in Two Cathedrals. Plus there were needlepoint pillows over major historical figures, like Henry Clay - COOL! We followed that up with Shakes (peanut butter cup!) and fries at Z burger in Tenleytown, then spent the rest of the afternoon hiding from the rain and watching football at Buffalo Billiards (which I found surprisingly enjoyable, even though it was sports, because Mat S. was good and explained things to me). That evening, Mat, Rachel H and I ventured north to Cleveland Park to celebrate the 22^nd birthday of one Ms. Alli G., my favorite (and only) sister! The food was great, and Alli’s friends were lovely, and most importantly, I procured a number of ridiculous Alli-with-sombrero photos. Great success.

Monday morning began with a visit to Afterwords Café in Kramerbooks with Mat S.—I had the avocado tomato Eggs Benedict; he had the smoked salmon, but most importantly, we both had the delicious lemon hollandaise sauce! We had a lovely brunch, and then he headed back to NYC and I headed off to work. Now THAT is how you start a work-week.

Happy Anniversary to DC - and me! (Part 1!)

So I decided that this week should be extra special, since it is DC and my one-year anniversary. (I was inspired by Carrie of Sex and the City's relationship with NYC, obviously) Why a week-long celebration of my relationship with this lovely city? Well, mostly because it's a little complicated to decide where to begin. You see, I arrived in DC on January 11, 2009, but didn't move into my apartment until January 13, 2009, and didn't start my new job until January 14th, 2009. Also, the next weekend was when I really felt like I was LIVING in DC -- Schutzer came to visit Rachel H. and I for inauguration, and all of the inauguration festivities (and my second Bradley Whitford sighting) happened around MLK Day. Thus, a week of anniversaryness.

The festivities began on Monday with a fabulous Restaurant Week lunch at Chef Geoff's with Arielle G. and Jason F. I really do enjoy Chef Geoff's, and we all chose very well with our meals. For appetizer, I got Lamb Skewers with a feta/cucumber relish. As a rule, you can pretty much say the word "feta" and I'm in, but the lamb itself was really smokey and delish. Main course was an autumn squash risotto with really yummy pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds throughout, which added really nice texture. The dessert we all shared, and we got an apple tart, chocolate brownie (I HIGHLY recommend this -- it was thinner and richer and more molten than your usual brownie. yum), and a pumpkin spice cake with marscapone in the middle.

I ended up working 11 hours on Monday, because I had a lot to get done before Tuesday mid-day. This would have been slightly annoying, but I was still on my Chef Geoff's high and was enjoying getting a lot done. As I was leaving, I had the brilliant idea of going to get a cupcake from Red Velvet Cupcakery. I chose a Key Lime cupcake with a White Chocolate merengue icing top. Very light and airy-tasting, as merengue-y things should be. Definitely had a I-am-fabulous-and-walking- through-Chinatown-with-cupcake moment there.

The anniversary celebrations continued with something that other people might find to be less-than-celebratory: class! I went to my first class in a course on Microeconomics at THE George Washington University (why does everything have the "the" in front of it? I find it slightly confusing). I decided I needed to take econ because any environmental management (MEM) or master's in public policy (MPP) is going to have it as a prerequisite, and because it'll help inform my energy efficiency work. I was VERY excited to purchase school supplies, as this is one of my favorite things to do, but the evil CVS in Metro Center apparently no longer carries them. Luckily, I left early enough to get to the Foggy Bottom CVS. Whew.

Anyway, the first class was good - she's an engaging professor, who uses graphs well (which I certainly do appreciate), and the subject matter seems interesting. I like the idea of trying to model the way people behave using numbers. It was a little weird to be in class after a year and a half, but the class contains a lot of people who are working or getting their master's, so that's kind of nice. Also, there were definite Republicans in my class. Not that there weren't Republicans at Brandeis (although there weren't many . . .) but they either a. were not in my environmental studies classes with me or b. were in science classes with me, where it doesn't really come up. Weird.

More wonderful anniversary week to come! So excited for Trivia at Sixth & I, Melting Pot, and Mat. S this weekend!

Happy New Year!

My last post -- the Best of 2009 was met with dismay by one of my bestest of friends, Mathew Schutzer. Somehow, despite the fact that 2009 involved vigorous amounts of visiting and gallumphing (inauguration, many NY visits, Costa Rica!), I neglected to mention his name in that post.

So . . .

Schutzy SchutzSchutzySchutzSchutzy! Okay, writing that many times in a row makes me a little dizzy.

Speaking of Schutz (and Jonathan), get ready for a bunch of Costa Rica-related posts. I have a three day weekend ahead of me, and am full of fun stories to tell!

Also, Happy New Year, everyone! Last night's New Years celebration at Seth and Stacy's was decidedly lovely -- I'm so happy to have successfully moved to a new city, found new and wonderful friends, and a new and wonderful job all in one year. Here's to an equally wonderful 2010.

The Best of All Possible . . . Months

Because it's that time of year, and I'll be out of town when I normally catalog the bests of the year for myself, I decided to do it a little early. It was a pretty wonderful year, so enjoy! More bests of . . . posts to come.

January: After moving to DC, seeing Bradley Whitford and Peter Yarrow singing if I Had a Hammer within one week of moving here ranked as pretty gamazing. Oh, yeah –Inauguration was kind of great, too. Beyonce. Josh Groban, Obama and Shelly O. in one day. Woah.

Feburary included a four day weekend of gloriousness with Matthew S., in which we spent half of the time eating, half of the time watching musicals, and the other half of the time tromping about DC with panache (yes, some of the halves overlap). So that wins the prize.

March’s highlight was a trip to Boston – the fabulous Hilary S. was in town, so I decided to come up for a four day weekend of best friends (we had an almost-complete Octet reunion, minus Mat. S), a little Brandeis, and a lot of wonderful. A. There was a picnic in Boston Commons, and b. I was not longer the sadsad person I was when I visited in November, so March wins! March also included Purim and my first ACEEE Conference, on Market Transformation!

April was a month full of favorites – the month began with a visit by Katherine C. and Sarah K., that somehow got me sunburnt in 65-degree weather, included Pesach at home and at Aunt Amy’s, a trip to visit Prisco in Olean, NY, and . . . my birthday! Hooray! As I said, great month.

May's highlights included my first Founding Farmers experience, my 5-year high school reunion, a trip to explore Virginia’s wine country, and Excel training. You would think that Excel training would not make the list. You would be wrong.

June was busting out all over with goodness – I attended my first TV premiere (the Philanthropist, followed by fabulous reception at CoCo Sala), saw Shrek the Musical and experienced the wonderfulness of Sutton Foster, met Allison Janney (yes, that’s Claudia Jean Cregg to you), and discovered Eastern Market (and subsequently went there four times that month).

July was jam-packed with wonderfulness, all involving either theater (Spring Awakening, the Color Purple, and Candide) or the newly-returned-from-cantorial-school Sarah K. (namely, the Best Berkshires/Boston Road Trip Ever).

August was a beastly and intense work month, but I still somehow managed to go to West Virginia (and experience whitewater rafting for the first time!), attend Signature Theater’s amazing Open House, build a LOT of IKEA furniture for Alli, and get back to NYC for Avenue Q, South Pacific and an Ethel Merman-themed revue, all with the indefatigable Matt S..

September included the release of my first ACEEE paper!, an amazing Labor Day weekend with Katherine C., the High Holidays, AND the my first trip to Chicago for the EER Conference (+ fabulous visiting with Zach S., Matt H., and Mike M.)

October was full of Zoo training, my cousin Josh’s wedding on Long Island, and my first good non-Brandeis Simchat Torah! Other highlights included the High Heel Drag Race in Dupont Circle, Barney Frank at Sixth and I, and Halloween in DC!

November’s highlight was by far the weekend in Annapolis/Baltimore with Mom. Visits by Missy M, Jonathan H., and Sara R. were pretty wonderful as well.

December isn’t over, so it may be too early to tell what it’s highlights were, but I’m sure they include A Little Night Music in NY and catching up with semi-long-lost Gordon 3 girls that weekend. Danny’s surprise 30^th birthday, Showboat at Signature Theater, and, you know COSTA RICA, are definite contenders for the list.

And I'll trip the light fandango!

I began my NYC adventure with a bus ride on Friday afternoon, and I had the good sense to rent a movie on my iPod – I chose The Proposal, because apparently I’m going through a bit of a Sandra Bullock phase after seeing The Blind Side over Thanksgiving. It was great fun, especially the scene where she dances to “Get Low” with Betty White. Priceless.

I arrived at Sarah’s lovely (and conveniently located! So close to Grand Central!) apartment, where I vigorously reunited with Matt and Sarah, then headed out for dinner. We went to this great Japanese place, Umi Sushi, where we all had gorgeous sushi rolls (mine was salmon avocado with spicy salmon + caviar on top = YUM). We galumphed to the Walter Kerr theater (which I had never been to before – such a pretty Grecian-looking ceiling!), where we sat for a bit and got ourselves quite excited for the theater to come.

Said anticipatory excitement hovered on multiple levels. First of all, it was my first Sondheim musical on Broadway. As with many things in life, I appreciate things more when it takes me a little bit to warm up to them (you know when you’re teaching Hebrew school and you finally connect to the kid who’s annoying at the beginning of the year? That’s what Sondheim was like for me.) I spent the majority of college resisting Matt’s vigorous attempts to get me to love Sondheim, but I finally cracked when we watched the Patti LuPone/George Hearn concert of Sweeney Todd. Anyway, since then I’ve fallen in love with Merrily We Roll Along and Sweeney and Follies, and I’ve begun to really appreciate the genius of his lyrics (I like them ALMOST as much as I like Cole Porter, which is really saying something).

So needless to say, I was excited about the Sondheim-ness. Add to that the presence of Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the cast, and I was fit to burst with excitement. From the waltz that began the show to the beautiful reprise of Send in the Clowns at the end, I was entranced. Everything was so artfully done – the staging was clever and fluid, especially in A Weekend in the Country and the Glamorous Life, the costumes were out-of-this-world exquisite, and the acting and singing were really just fabulous.

Matt and I had a little out-of-body holy-crap-is-that-actually-her? moment when Angela Lansbury started singing, and rightly so. Her comic timing was impeccable, and her take on Mme. Armfeldt was spot-on. Catherine Zeta-Jones made Desiree into this wonderful, manipulative, sympathetic character. I never really got the deal with Send in the Clowns before, and I think that’s because it really only makes sense in the context of the scene. Or perhaps she just acted it so well that it finally made sense to me. Either way, it was wonderful. Other favorites – everything that the miserably hilarious Charlotte said had me in stitches, and Frederik was just perfection. I could go on talking about this forever, but I’ll stop for now.

Afterwards, we waited by the stage door, and saw Alexander Hanson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and then headed to Margarita Murphy’s to meet up with Missy and David for drinks and catching up. That was ridiculously good times, especially since Sarah and I decided to play our game of making themed playlists (remember the very successful Beltin’ Broadway Babes?) Well, we did that, but with Old Lady song and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist Songs, and Pep Songs . . . great success. Matt and Sarah and I crashed WAY later than my usual bedtime, and woke up semi-early on Saturday morning . . .oy.

We brunched at a cute diner near Sarah’s, where I had an avocado/tomato/cheddar omelette (which I’ve since recreated v successfully at home), and then we said goodbye to Matt (after creating another great Broadway playlist – traveling songs!). Sarah and I spent the afternoon in because it was cold and rainy, and she introduced me to Psych, which is fast becoming my new favorite show, and we watched The American President, one of my top ten favorite movies of all time.

Saturday evening I bundled up for the intense cold, and headed down by NYU for Indian dinner with Mat, Sarah, Katherine and her roommate! The food was a little spicy for me, but it was SO nice to catch up with them. Afterwards, we bundled into Katherine's apartment, watched the Gordon 3 video (oy.), and then went to a bar down the street for Yoni's birthday -- I got to see a bunch of Deis people I haven't seen since graduation, which was really nice.

Alltogether a perfectly wonderful 36 hours of friends and theater and music and food -- NYC is good to me :)

Practically Perfect in Every Way

It is important that I record for posterity the events of Wednesday night, especially because they did not (sadly) involve photography of any kind. What exciting events, you may ask? Only the fact that I got to meet one of my top five favorite musical theater performers of the past century. That’s right, on Wednesday, November 18, 2009, I met Julie Andrews.

In the middle of the afternoon, I received an excited Gchat message from one Gavi Young, who is currently interning at the Kennedy Center, asking “ Do you want to meet Julie Andrews tonight?” My immediate and vigorous answer was YES. In order to meet the incomparable Dame Julie, one had to be one the of the first 100 people to buy her new book of poems from the Kennedy Center giftshop. Now I am not normally someone given to extraneous purchases that I don’t particularly want. Then again, I do own an avocado slicer and a mango pitter, but kitchen supplies don’t really count, and I think I got those from my mother.

Anyway, Gavi and I bought the books, and got tickets that came along with them for the signing. I spent the afternoon telling everyone on Gchat/Twitter what was happening and soliciting suggestions for what to say to her. I left work early to get to the Kennedy Center around 5:00, and Gavi and her co-worker met me by the Opera House. We stood in line for about an hour, getting excited and reading our books (which by the way, turned out to be a LOVELY anthology of poems and song lyrics. With an accompanying CD of Julie reading the poems. Why do I have no friends with children so that I can have them listen to this wonderful CD?). We found out that no pictures were allowed, but our enthusiasm was barely dampened with this revelation – after all, we were about to meet the woman who originated the roles of Mary Poppins, Cinderella, and Guenevere!!

After waiting for a while, we walked up to a side room near the Opera House (apparently where the Kennedy Center Honors award winners hang out beforehand . . . as in – BARBRA has been in that room. Woah.) where we waited in a line to get in. Gavi went first, and after she was done, I walked in, got my book taked and opened by a little boy who I was introduced to as Julie’s grandson (so precious), and then I got to the table where she and her daughter were sitting. I spoke with her daughter while she signed it, and I mentioned that I love the Stephen Sondheim lyrics they chose to put in there (from Sunday in the Park with George), and she thanked me for reading it, and then . .. I moved down the table to where Julie was sitting!

She took my book, looking perfectly elegant and matronly and well-dressed and well-coiffed and wonderful. She was much larger than I imagined she would be – not that she’s a particularly large person at all, but I think that she’s pretty tall when she stands up. Anyway, she took the book, and signed it. I told her that I recently read her autobiography, Home, with my friend as a part of our international book club, and that it helped us stay in touch when my friend was on the other side of the world. She said, “oh, that just warms my heart” (imagine Julie Andrews, the most recognizable voice ever, saying that!), and then I said, ‘it’s such a pleasure to meet you”, and she smiled and waved and took the next person’s book.

So, an hour of waiting in line and a day of getting excited culminated in about 45 seconds of interaction with a woman who once possessed one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard, and who still possesses an elegance and presence that bowled me over. What a wonderful, perfect, vigorously fabulous day. I became friends with the Octet watching The Sound of Music, learned to dance like a penguin watching Mary Poppins, and learned to love musical theater watching My Fair Lady as a toddler. It was pretty darned amazing to meet the woman who made those beautiful musical experiences happen.

Twenty thousand points to Gavi, and double that for Julie Andrews for being who she is.

Mother-Daughter Weekend Part Two: Baltimore

After a restful evening enjoying the Bed portion of B&B (and let’s be honest how can you not sleep well with the Prince and Me on your mind), we packed up our stuff at the B&B, and went down for the second B, Breakfast. We chatted it up with the lovely proprietor, Heidi, and got to ask lots of questions about her gorgeous, partially-pre-Civil War (!) house. While she rustled up some breakfast (I do love the verb “rustle” when applied to food-making), Mom and I walked around the property again, all the way down to their dock, and back around the barn and farmy portion of the property. When we came back, me semi-winded and Mom fit as a fiddle, Heidi was waiting with tea, a lovely fruit bowl, and . . . raisin challah French toast, cut thick, and made in the eggiest of fashions. So yummy.

We drove to Baltimore, and headed straight for the Baltimore Museum of Art. I neglected to check the museum’s opening time, so we arrived about 45 minutes before that, which meant that we were forced to walk around the gorgeous sculpture garden. If I’m going to be forced to do something in future, I sure hope it’s as nice as this garden. It was warm (70 degrees!) and sunny, and I got lots of backlit pictures of sunlight filtering through trees, and the sculptures were cool and weird and thought-provoking . . . what a great way to start a museum visit.

The rest of the museum was also lovely, and it’s a relatively small collection (says the girl who’s used to the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Met, so my perspective may be slightly skewed. . . ), but really wonderful. I was particularly enchanted by the collection of mosaics from 5^th century Antioch, especially since I just finished As a Driven Leaf, much of which takes place in 1^st century Antioch. Also, Rodin’s the Thinker was wonderful to see up close – I never realized what a muscle-y, powerful figure it is. I don’t normally think of thinkers that way. Also also, it had a really great contemporary collection (especially the very moving and powerful and thought-provoking work of Hank Willis Thomas). Other things I loved: a. it’s free! b. the listening device thingymabob was free, so I got fun and interesting commentary throughout.

We checked into our hotel, and then went back out to investigate a Greek Food Festival sign we had seen. After parking in a semi-sketch lot, we galumphed into a large tent next to a gorgeous cathedral and dug into the most delicious gyros and calamari ever (note: this is where the kosher vacay started!). It was so homey and cute, and there were Greek children dancing, people watching the football game – a great way to start our afternoon.

After the vigorous eating, I was experiencing a little bit of a food coma, so we went to our hotel room for nap. While I was napping, Mona discovered some unfortunateness about our room (won’t go into details, but ick!), so we ended up switching rooms, and somehow ending up in this HUGE suite, with two bedrooms and a living room and a conference table and a kitchen and two bathrooms. So that worked out great.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Inner Harber, checking out my home for the summer of 2001 (the USCG Taney), the fabulous Barnes and Noble where I learned about minke biology that summer, and a number of lovely shops (we had a LOT of fun in the hat shop in particular). After guacamole and drinks at the Cheesecake Factory (yes it’s everywhere, yes it can be delish), we headed in for movies and bed.

The next morning, we followed the recommendation of my Baltimore friends and headed to Miss Shirley's for brunch. This turned out to be the best part of the whole trip -- Mom had carrot spice raisin pancakes (woah), and I had a sandwich with avocado, bacon, a fried green tomato and cheese. It came with either grits or potatoes, and I always order potatoes, since I'm not a grits kind of gal. At least, I wasn't until I went to Miss Shirley's Cafe. After some waiter-cajoling, I went with the grits, made with mascarpone cheese, chives, applewood-smoked bacon, and heavy cream. Let's just say, I will never again make a trip to Baltimore without having those grits. SO good. We ended the trip with a stop in Filene's (and the purchase of a lovely sundress), and then we went our separate ways. SUCH a good mother-daughter weekend.