Weekend Round Up

So this weekend went by especially fast. I think the fact that I was holed up in bed for most of it helped it go back so speedily. I have come to cherish my weekends and respect them for the peace that they offer from the usual Monday-Friday grind. Especially Fridays. I love my Fridays.

This is how they usually look every morning...

My Fridays start out obnoxiously early: around 6:30. I turn off my alarm and flip on MSNBC (OK, let's be real- MSNBC is already on because I stayed up til some ridiculous hour watching Lock Up). I watch the horrible things that happened in the world while I was sleeping and listen to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski argue about the appropriateness of Lindsay Lohan's outfit choices. I somehow make it to the shower, manage to properly dress myself (Friday means casual wear at the office which basically means jeans and some shirt that manages to not have some form of spilled beverage or food on it) and head out the door. Work consists of me sitting and trolling Craigslist for funny Missed Connections stories for 8 hours. Then I get to walk home and watch the sun go down. This is my favorite part of my week: the walk home. It's a good 30 minutes and it takes me past the White House where I always get that feeling of "I can't believe this is my commute home". It's really an incredible feeling. It's also usually ruined in about five minutes when a a some gaggle of Asian tourists come crashing down upon the White House in a flurry of Segways. 

Then I usually get to kick up my feet for a solid five minutes before I throw on some nicer clothes and head over to Shabbat dinner. Ever since the new year, I have made it a priority to make it to Shabbat dinner. I also don't go out on Fridays. I will, however, sit in a friend's room and drink Chilean brandy til 4:00am. But no going out out... It's a process. I like the whole idea of Shabbat, though. The idea that for one day of the week, I get to shut down. I don't have to rush off somewhere, meet someone or be someplace. I can have an amazing dinner, meet great people and then drink with said people til 4 in the morning while discussing the philosophy behind South Park. It's time for me and I find myself exuberantly happy when Friday rolls around.

Unfortunately this Friday I was out of commission and could not get myself out of bed. I was kind of surprised to find how much I missed my Shabbat ritual. Luckily, I was in enough pain to just nod off to sleep. And watch a Lifetime movie, of course.

Saturday was a blur. I woke up at 8:30am thanks to some collections agency calling. Woops. I then sat around waiting for the weather to pick up past 30 degrees and then I went out for a run to the National Monument. It was a tough run with the wind constantly blowing at your face but it felt kind of nice to get there and collapse on the grass and literally be the only person around.

Later that night Jenn and I went to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre. It was interesting... I felt weird solving someone's murder. It made me feel kind of guilty for some reason. Also the writing was horrible and two Whiskey sours could not make it any more entertaining. It was also noteworthy how Jenn and I were A) the only people there under 40 and B) the only people not there on some sort of date. So naturally we peaced out after the entree and went straight to Public so we could find some people our own age to mock.

Love falling asleep to this beautiful face

By this time we were both pretty tired and I was feeling sick, so we headed back to the dorm and spent the rest of the night watching Fiddler on the Roof. Success.

Sunday we aimed to go on a film-related Scavenger Hunt put on by the Red Cross. Unfortunately I got us the wrong directions but coincidentally I landed us in front of the best fro-yo in all of DC. It was then that we decided that since I had royally screwed up the day's plans (we had our trainers on and everything so we could run!) we would check out what was playing. We bought tickets for True Grit which was phenomenal. The last 10 minutes were interesting.. definitely worth seeing.

Then on the way home, I was all excited to cuddle up in bed and watch Lifetime (it's an addiction people) when I got a call from my friend Francesca, who I had met couch surfing (we stayed at the same guy's place). She is from Milano and is here interning at the World Bank. She invited me out with the lure of Ethiopian food and other DC internationals and naturally I couldn't resist. If there is one thing in the world, besides Lifetime, that is my Kryptonite- it's internationals. 

It was a fantastic night. I love the chance to meet new people and I love the banter that naturally follows between Americans who are surrounded by said internationals. It was definitely one of those nights that makes me question if I ever want to leave DC because I constantly keep meeting fantastic and fascinating people here.

And that brings us to dreary old Monday. It is 11:00am and there have already been around 18 references to Valentine's Day. I don't get this holiday at all. Of course, my lovely Valentine did buy me a dozen roses and chocolate. (In turn I had gotten her a customized romance novel- Best. Purchase. Ever) Already I am wishing it to be Friday, especially since we have a long weekend. I actually just purchased tickets to fly home- unfortunately the trip is scheduled full with doctor's appointments and undoubtedly several tests involving the forced procurement of blood from my body. So on that happy note- Happy Valentine's Day!