South America. It's like America, but south.

This weekend was a glorious amalgamation of some of the things that make me happiest in the world: Matt S., theater, yummy food, and wonderful friends. Last year, Matt came to visit around his February break (Brandeis/TBE do two one-week breaks, one in February and one in April), and since we had such a wonderful time, he visited again this year!

Matt arrived on Wednesday afternoon, after a vigorous five days of work for me (Wednesday felt like Friday because I worked on Saturday/Sunday . . . but worth it, because we have a great paper coming out soon). Anyway, I was ready for some weekend, and Matt’s visit was the perfect opportunity to take a few days. We spent Wednesday afternoon relaxing and catching up, watching musicals and making delicious guacamole.

We met up with Jason F. at Kramerbooks, where we shared dinner (mushroom polenta and mac and cheese, HELLO!) and dessert (Goober Pie, obvi). I had never experienced polenta, which was a problem I am very glad to have remedied, since it was delicious. The Goober Pie was glorious as usual, as you can see below. Thanks to Emily G. of Wild and Crazy Pearl for the introduction to Goober-Pie-land a few months ago.

We spent Thursday morning lolling about, then met up with Matt’s high school friends Cati S. and Sarah F. at this cute sushi place in Bethesda, whose name I sadly cannot remember. Crunchy spicy tuna avocado rolls were eaten with a vigor, as were Philly rolls (they called them Bagel rolls – cute!), tempura rolls, and some other good ones. There was also a lovely ginger peanut salad dressing that I was quite enamored with. Lunch was fun and wacky, full of Cati and Sarah’s slightly ridiculous and definitely sitcom-worthy exploits, and afterwards, Matt and I went to Mustard Seed, a consignment shop I’ve been wanting to check out forever. I was a little disappointed in the shoe selection for those of us with larger-than-average feet, but I found a lovely Newsies-esque cap and am thinking I need a repeat trip to examine their dress selection.

Thursday afternoon was spent watching Up!, my new favorite movie ever (actually. It might be beating Mrs. Doubtfire and Sister Act right now.), which I’m pretty sure I need to own, and pronto. The combination of old man + adventure + talking dog + environmental overtones (although I kind of loved the villain citing his T.R. affiliations – I do love a good conservationist-hunter-President) was absolute perfection. Plus, the animation was gorgeous.

Thursday night involved a wonderful trip to Shirlington with Matt S. and Josh K. to see Sweeney Todd at Signature Theater. I was so excited to introduce Matt to Signature, which is really one of my favorite parts of living in D.C. We dinner-ed at T.H.A.I. (don’t know why they make it like an acronym, but the food was yummy), and then I experienced my second ever professional Sondheim show! I’ve loved the music from Sweeney Todd since Matt sat me down senior year and forced me to watch the Patti LuPone/George Hearn version against my will, but this was my first live performance of the show. The cast was wonderful, especially Toby, Mrs. Lovett and Antony, and I loved the horror-movie feel of the show, which I knew was a part of it, but never really GOT until I saw it live. After the show, we went back to Kramerbooks (come on, we wanted dessert on a Thursday night at 12:30am, where else were we to go?), where we totally ordered another Goober Pie and the lovely fruit crumble with cinnamon ice cream. Mmm.

I woke up Friday feeling a little congested/under the weather, so we relaxed most of the day, leaving only to brunch at Rosemary’s Thyme (clearly, Matt needed to experience the gloriousness of their pides). We spent the afternoon watching a documentary about Rodgers and Hammerstein musical movies, and then went to Teaism for Chai cinnamon gelato shakes and chatting. We then ventured out to Capitol Hill to meet up with Gavi Y., Jason F., and Alli G., but were early, so we got in a nice walk around the back of the Capitol and around the Library of Congress and Supreme Court. It was one of those lovely life conversations that you can only have with a few people who really GET you, and the evening couldn’t have been warmer or prettier. Hooray!

Eventually, everyone got to Good Stuff Eatery, the restaurant owned by Spike of Top Chef fame (he was there that evening!), where we all ate yummy portabello mushroom burgers and onion petals with delicious flavored mayos (my favorite is the Old Bay). After eating and catching up (and hearing some exciting news from Gav!), we galumphed to Dupont Circle, where met up with Will at Big Hunt for drinks and fun. After a very full evening of fun, we dragged ourselves back to Van Ness, but rather than going to sleep (which would have been smart, since Matt S. had to wake up at 5:30am!), we watched the first half of Hello, Dolly!, which really was a perfect ending to a perfect three days of wonderfulness.

From Snowmageddon to Snoverkill: by the numbers

For all my D.C. friends, none of this post will be news (although it will involve pretty pictures, courtesy of Seth K. and Arielle G., photographers extraordinaire). For that matter, it probably won't be news for anyone else, since apparently, the ginormous amounts of snow were even enough to attract the attention of the Israeli press.

Nonetheless, I think it is necessary to chronicle the epic events of BlizzarDC 2010, and clearly, doing it numerically is clearly the way to go. So here goes.

55.9 = inches total in the DC area all winter (measured at DCA)

30 = number of miles per hour the wind was blowing on Wednesday. (the Almira Gultch tune was in my head all day . . . )

20 = approximate number of yards of 2.5-ft. snow accidentally gallumphed in by Jason F. and myself (it was a cleared path on Van Ness St. on Tuesday, and Snoverkill blew it over! We were minding our own business, walking through a few inches of snow, and all of a sudden, we were in snow up past our knees!)

4.5 = number of days the federal government was shut down

4 = the season of How I Met Your Mother that I watched in its entirety, thanks to Rachel H.

3 = number of new websites I became briefly obsessed with -- Capital Weather Gang, OPM (the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, source of federal gov't statuses!), and my work's online server that lets me get to my desktop remotely!

3 = number of the Van Ness crew that attempted to eat snow (maybe it's 4, but I can't tell if Stacy actually ate any in this picture)

2 = number of nights involving Bananagrams

2 = number of favorite snow/rap related puns: "You Down with Snow PP? Yeah, you know me." and "Snowtorious B.I.G."

2 = number of wonderful roommates who took care of me the day I was sick (thanks, Jessica G. and June R.!)

1 = number of fabulous snowmen created (who we named Milton Rutherford III, because that was one dignified snowman)

1 = number of hours I was confused by whatever LOST was trying to do this week (although about 1 minute of that included happiness about island-versio-of-history-Claire's return!)

1 = batches of snow ice cream made (thanks to Arielle G. for organizing the vanilla-y wonderfulness)

1 = night of delicious tacos, beer, and Bananagrams with the NOVA crew when Snowpacalyse was first starting

1= number of amazing Superbowl cakes made by Alexa B. - Geaux Saints!

0.8 = number of miles trudged on Albemarle Street with Rachel H. on our Best Buy/Robek's adventure on Monday

0 = number of bags of spinach in the Van Ness Giant all week!

many,many = number of times we all fell in the snow.

10 = number of days since Snowmageddon started. And guess what it's doing outside? Yup, it's snowing.