Cherry Blossoms - now gone

Well, the cherry blossoms came and went. I went to the National Mall last night, but was too late. Darn it! I've managed to make it down there every other year.

This year, there were more tourists than flowers by the time I made it down to the tidal basin.

No good pictures this year, but here's one from years past. They are beautiful and a great gift to our country. Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Cherry_Blossom_Festival

RaeLyn visits DC

My sister RaeLyn flew out with two of her kids for Thanksgiving. Though they actually went up to NJ to see Renaye for a day or two, it was good to spend a little time with them in Virginia. They basically decorated my tree for me! Maybe they can come back and take it down in January? (-: The little man broke a Christmas ball and stood there just kicking it when everyone got up in arms about the broken glass. Ha. I didn't care. It just helps me realize how NOT child proof my house is right now.

Hopefully they will come this way more often. They are the only niece and nephews west of the Mississippi. So, we don't get to see Dan and RaeLyn enough. Phoenix is sounding good right about now and so perhaps I should take a trip.

Great to see you RaeLyn!

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Good times with Good Friends

It's Black Friday! I live within a couple of miles of some of the best shopping in Northern Virginia. I slept in until 8 a.m. and got into the car almost an hour later.

However, I didn't go the mall (except in Pentagon City where that was the only place to park). I got to spend Black Friday with two great former roommate friends.

They came out to DC this week despite the change of wedding plans.

We had a great time. Jacque and I drove around DC and down to Mt. Vernon. We met up with Shirley a little later and drove down Route 1 in Alexandria, Virginia to enjoy the Afghan Restaurant. When we all lived in Pentagon City we would frequent this restaurant almost weekly. We loved the Afghan waiting staff and of course the wonderful food. We were some of the first people to go back to the restaurant after September 11th when we saw our favorite waiter plastered on the front of the USA Today saying that they had lost $30,000 in business that month after the attacks.

Ah, good times. Sometimes in these moments you don't realize that 8-9 years have past since you've first met someone. In fact, I feel like I've known Shirley and Jacque my entire life. Maybe it's because we've gone through the hard parts of life together. Or, maybe it's just because we trust in each other to share those deep sorrows, pains, hopes and desires.

Does it really matter why I feel like I've known them forever? Probably not. It just matters that I have these friends and no matter how many years separate us...we still just get together and talk as if nothing has changed between then and now. I think we all need a few people like this in our lives. Maybe just 1-2 or perhaps even 9-10, but the point is to have them and to be one of them to someone else.

Good times. Good friends.

You know you live in DC if...

I wish I could find the email someone sent me a few years ago. It was a very clever "You know you live in DC when..." type of email.

I do remember a couple of them:

• You know you live in DC when you ask someone where they work and they say that if they told you they would have to kill you ...and they really mean it.
• You know you live in DC when you start reading license plates that say "5Y3EGHL" and try to make it mean something (putting words on license plates is cheap around here and so TONS of people personalize their plates).

Ok, I can't remember many right now, but if I ever find that email again I will post it here.

Today I went over to mall in search of a dresser. Can the woman just shop in peace? All of the sales people swarm to you and make sure that you know their name ...so I can use their name later at the register even though I prefer to find my own furniture? Whatever. There were about three dressers I liked, but because of how they display things I had to keep walking back to each little fake bedroom in the store to remind myself which one had which details, etc. Finally I found one and then I couldn't find a salesperson. I guess they had given up on me. I wandered by a woman wearing a saree (sari, shari) with a tag hanging around her neck and she did indeed work there.

As she was ringing up my purchase (do they "ring" up purchases nowadays? - maybe it's actually "point and clicking" my purchase) we talked about the holiday and then she told me that they were celebrating international something or other and that is why they were all wearing their native outfits. Without a thought I just said, "Oh, I just thought you wore that everyday." Come to think of it, there were an awful lot of Sikhs waring turbans, Saudi men in white dresses, and Indian woman in their sarees floating around in the JCPenny and Macy furniture departments. I hadn't really noticed because everywhere I go people wear outfits from different cultures than mine and I just expect it. So, it was surprising, and almost funny, that she would inform me that she was "dressing up" in attire that I would expect that she would be wearing anyway.

And, so we have our new addition to the list, except I can't think about how to phrase it. Perhaps someone a little more verbally inclined can think something up.

______________

Update: Ann provided me two links that have some of the lists that circle around. Thanks Ann!

http://www.robinsweb.com/maryland/you_know_youre_from_dc.html

http://www.stevix.com/youknow.htm

Photography by Harrison

Harrison got one of her photographs in the Washington DC Temple Center photo show. Great picture of a doorway of a holy place in Turkey.

Congrats Harrison!

Surrender Dorothy

This week I was speaking with one of my co-workers that commutes from Maryland into Virginia everyday. We started talking about the "Mormon Temple" because I was telling him I had gone up that way last week.

He said that there was a "Surrender Dorothy" graffiti written in huge letters for many years on an overpass prior to driving toward the temple. I had never heard of this before, but apparently it was quite the popular item in Maryland, especially since they tried to cover it with a different color paint to hide the lettering.

Anyway, I jokingly said I would "google it" to find out more info.

Much to my surprise (I don't know why), there is actually a wiki entry about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_Dorothy . Even more surprising, it says that "all the Mormons" have talked about it and it shows up in our newsletters? I had no idea I should be receiving a newsletter let alone the "fact" that this is a supposed common entry in the newsletter.

Ah, the joys of web 2.0. Actually, and I will have to look into this more, wikipedia is rapidly becoming more reliable than the encyclopedia contrary to public opinion.

The wisdom of the crowds comes into play here I guess. I have been in conferences where they have entered bogus information into it at the beginning of the session and by the end it's been corrected by an anonymous expert/person surfing the internet.

Well, more about Dorothy later. I'm late for a meeting that I didn't want to attend anyway.