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!