"It's not a road trip, it's a rrrooooaadddd trip."

I'm on a road trip across the US since I have up and left DC (don't get me started... I'm really not ready to talk about it). Emma is driving with me on the first part of the journey, and so far we've swung through Virginia to see my swimmers, North Carolina for a lovely dinner with Noor, and South Carolina to spend some time with my Gram. There is much more driving to be done and places to see, but so far it's been great. Here's a glimpse of Sunday, Day 1...

Jimmy T's always has the best mugs

8 miles each? No big deal. They rocked it.

8 miles later...

Kannapolis, NC on Dale Ernhardt Blvd. Hello, America!

We had such a good time having dinner with Noor that we forgot the all-important picture to document the occasion. Next time, next time.

Staff Assistants

yep, that's right... i miss you :(

Ice cream day on Capitol Hill

Hooray!!!! You can find me with melty ice cream this afternoon participating in what might be the best annual reception on the Hill (although, the Brewer's Association isn't too shabby either).

IcE cReAm DaY!

Welcome summer and baby

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet

Make you want to move your dancing feet

-Bob Marley

Yesterday was summer solstice, the longest day of sunlight in the year! The day is bright for nearly 15 hours. Isn't that wonderful? I went for an hour long jog. Of course, it was once the sun had gone down because I was indoors at work all day so I missed the sunlight but still, magnificent. 

Oh my gosh guess what?! As of Sunday night, I am an auntie to the most beautiful, sweet, strawberry-haired baby girl. Congratulations to Rachel, my dear friend. Little baby B is just the luckiest to have you and Devin to guide her through the beginning of her life. What a blessing. So, I get to start spoiling her now, right? :)

<3

Images of Eastern Market and the Jefferson Building

 

These last days are filled with such adventure. Here is what Eastern Market and the Library of Congress look like through my camera's lens. It's even better in real life. I'm going to miss this...

love always.

Washington Monument

 

Here's what I did today. Happy weekend! 

Love always.

A note to the District

Dear DC,

I'm already getting sad about leaving you. Do you realize that when I first joined forces with you, I didn't know what people were talking about when they referred to "the Beltway", "K Street", or "the Metro"? You were a perfect stranger, really. We have come so far together, and you have changed and enhanced my life in so many ways over the last 2 years. I already bought waterproof mascara for all of our goodbyes. It's going to be tearful on my end, and from the weather report for the next week, it looks like you'll be grumpy about our impending separation, too. Don't worry, I'll always love you and I won't ever forget about you.

On my first trip to see you, I remember standing outside of the Capitol on the West front and thinking, "I wonder how you get into there". Boy, let me tell you, I now know the answer to that question in a big way. You've given me the opportunity to help other people who are excited to get to know you. I've met people from all over the world and from all walks of life including the big-wigs who are attracted to you for your power, other young adults who came to you when you offered them opportunity, and people struggling to put up with your tough side. You've acquainted me with people who are now some of my closest friends and for whom I will also be wearing my waterproof mascara.

I love each of your neighborhoods-- the gentrified, the sketchy (but not the dangerous), and the historic. Even though they're ridiculously overpriced, I still adore your corner markets, especially The Corner Market on 4th and East Cap. The people who work there are fantastic, so be good to them, DC. You have great, world-class restaurants, but your best places are the unassuming. Where else can I go for breakfast with Miss Emma and sit next to Chris Dodd and listen to him talk about his earlier breakfast with the Vice Prez? Jimmy T's has no big sign out front, just a piece of computer paper taped to the window and an "open" sign, but it's the best. The. Best. You be good to that place while I'm gone too, ok DC? You have a smelly, ghetto fish market that of course I am completely enamored with. You have a historic, wealthy, mostly snooty, but also charming area in Northwest. You have an up-and-coming H Street NE dotted with great entrepreneurial ventures like Biergarten Haus, but where I can still meet the local heroine addict while I order lo mein from a place that also specializes in burgers, seafood, and tacos. For the record, I truly, madly, deeply love H Street.

You have inspired me to be a bit more fashionable, though that's relative... I still have a long way to go. I do own more black than ever and multiple umbrellas. I also really appreciate that you have 4 distinct seasons. You are chalked to the brim with history, memorials, and stories. For being a small city, you are certainly never boring and always provide more to discover. It bothers me that your red line Metro drivers can't properly pronounce "judiciary" (joo-dish-oo-ary is not correct) and that I have to wait up to 18 minutes on nights and weekends for the dang Metro, but it's ok-- I don't hold that against you. I like your abundance of lightning bugs and joggers. I like walking into UP and sometimes feeling like Cheers where "everybody knows your name". Or at least where Lance knows and then offers up some Jameson. Be good to him, too.

Anyway, you should know that you're unique. You're far from perfect, and sometimes I really hate you. But mostly I just love you. I'm going to leave you, but I won't be happy about it. I know you'll keep on without me and you'll have so many other people fall in love with you too. But you'll always be "my city". I can't wait to spend the next week or so with you. And I'm really going to miss you.

Love always,
Elisabeth

Pictures of Cake

I have been a baking machine lately. 2 cakes. Filled cupcakes. Cookies. Yummmm

Gattaca, but seriously

Last night I watched the movie Gattaca. It came out in 1997, so I don't know why I hadn't watched it yet. I really liked it because it's a story about an underdog, among other things. I love a good movie that involves someone fighting for their dreams.

"It's funny. You work so hard. You do everything

you can to get away from a place

and when you finally get your chance to leave,

you find a reason to stay.

A year is a long time."

"Not so long, just once around the sun."

 

To think about how fast this past year has gone and all of the changes it's brought... the year ahead is sure to be even faster. Can't wait.

Feelin' hot hot hot

You guys, in case you don't live in DC or on the off-chance that you do live here and you are being held captive inside and air conditioned building and can't go outside, can I just say that it is hot. H O T. Oooohhhh boy, summer really is here! The humidity has swooped in and is mulling around my doorstep trying to escape it's own discomfort by pushing it's way into my climate controlled dwelling. I'm serious dudes; on days like these, as 100% ridiculous as this is, I use a space heater at my desk because the buildings get pumped full of cold air that is turned freezing by the amount of humidity in the air. I spend the whole day with goosebumps otherwise. Not even kidding, though I wish I were.

I really like it though. Isn't that weird? But it's like, I choose to be here! I moved here! I wanted (want) this! Isn't life sweet? (And sweaty.) The heat gets so oppressive that everyone has an excuse to not go for a run! Well, I mean, I use it as an excuse. Although, it's kind of rare that I go on a run anyway. Except for sometimes when I just really want to run. And heaven help me, if I see a ghetto baby playing in a fire hydrant, I will probably stay in this glorious place for the rest of my life. Since I'm looking forward to moving to Germany, please do me a favor and keep all fire hydrants for emergency use only and keep all of the precious little ghetto babies cool by buying them Popsicles and stuff. Just for now. Thanks. errrr, I mean, dankeschoen. I better start using German once in a while. I'm not even kidding.

Also, have you noticed that there are about 15 hours of daylight nowadays? Gosh, this life is just so lovely. Even when it's just so sweaty and oppressive, too.

*

<3 Shell

And <3 you, Ash. We're here for you.

An Ode to my Friends

I have to write this right now. I just do. I am blessed with the most wonderful people in my life. It's easy to feel like I do everything myself, like I'm totally independent and 100% capable of relying on me, myself, and I all the time. But I'm not. I am not super woman. I have some moments of being pretty super, but I also sometimes crumble, and gosh-- my safety net of caring, beautiful people is always there even when I don't seek it. It's like you guys just know. Actually, you do. You just know. How truly lovely.

I have friends who are also family, like my mom, brother, sister, aunts, cousins, etc. When I was 13, my mom was very much my mom, and it's been so much fun to grow up so that she can be my friend, too. I like being old enough to not bicker with my siblings and just have them as confidants and friends-- people who have known me for a lifetime.

I have friends who are going through life's greatest challenges, dealing with hardships and hard lessons from life and who still manage to take the time to make sure we meet up for friend-dates and who check in with little emails and text messages. How did I get so lucky? How do I ever let this be taken for granted? Hopefully I do a good job at being part of the safety nets of my friends, too.

I have friends who know me. Really know me. Friends who can listen to me cry on the phone or who can hear nothing and understand exactly what is going on with me-- good or bad. I know that regardless of geographic distance or life events, we will always be friends. These are the friends that the conversation picks up right where it left off, no matter how much time has passed since we last saw each other, whether it was Sunday for a drive or last year for coffee during an airport layover.

I have friends who are fun, friends who are insightful, friends who love me, friends who write letters to me, friends in the West, friends in the East, friends overseas, old friends, new friends, and friends everywhere in between.

I have been slowly overwhelmed with little things piling up with my move, and I haven't been the best or most attentive friend lately, but I hope you all know how very much I care about you, and how very, very grateful I am to have you. Love always.

It's a haiku, too

This is of my mom.

I love this picture of her.

She's remarkable.

(that was a haiku... i did that by accident, but now i'm just impressed with my poetic prowess.)

Attention Doughnut Luvahs

Today is Friday. I love Fridays. Today is also, I just learned, National Doughnut Day. Does this make it the greatest Friday of the year? No, because I was in Hawaii on a Friday this year, but still, today is in the running.

I went for a swim this morning and do you know, I hadn't been in the pool in two and a half weeks. I have been so stinkin' busy that I have put that at the bottom of my to-do list. I'm not going to let it slip that far down my list of priorities ever again. It just makes me feel so  g o o d. And so happy. And sometimes inadequate, which I must admit I don't hate entirely because it gives me motivation to improve.

I am quickly running out of DC days. Panic that I won't have enough time to do everything is setting in. I will probably just accept sleep as a my lowest priority and be as busy with fun shenanigans as I can possibly be.

And can I just say, to the hobo who resides mainly outside of the Exxon on 2nd and Mass... Thank you for always keeping me up to date on what day of the week it is and for reminding me to not go skinny dipping. You're right, today is Friday and I probably shouldn't go skinny dipping. After all, this is an urban area, not a secluded beach. I'm pretty sure that skinny dipping in the whirlpool next to the workout pool would get me promptly kicked out and asked to please not come back. And you know, I will enjoy the weekend. Hopefully you enjoy yours, too. You always look so footloose when on your neighborhood bike rides with your hair blowing in the breeze.

Pack 'em up and move 'em out

Yesterday marked the end of a beautiful chapter of my life.

I packed up my life into a handful of boxes, 2 suitcases, and 3 Rubbermaid drawers.

I sorted out unneeded papers, junk I ended up with (where does this stuff come from?), and memories.

I took out innumerable bags of trash - seriously, how much old bathroom products can one accumulate?

I donated 5 large bags of clothing.

I fit all of the clothes I am keeping into a large rolling suitcase

and all of the clothes I'll wear between now and leaving DC into another.

I took art down from my walls, put all the loose change I found into one baggie,

and created a giant mound of documents that I have yet to sort and file.

I stared at the empty wine bottles above my kitchen cabinets and decided that I didn't have the heart to recycle those memories yet.

I cleared off my bedroom window sill, a place from which I've been admiring Capitol Hill for 18 months.

Oh gosh, I just realized I didn't pack my 110th, 111th, and 112th Congress mugs...

must. not. forget.

I did take a time out in order to eat We The Pizza and watch Moulin Rouge with Jenny.

Totally worth being up until 4am packing.

I'm not strong enough to carry my mattress downstairs (wait, all this time I thought I was Wonder Woman?)

so I have to figure out how to do that still.

I have absolutely adored living in my little house (except for one time when we got a rat), and I will miss it.

What a wonderful part of my life this has been!

<3