Broadway Today at the Kennedy Center

Yesterday there was a special free concert at the Kennedy Center. [Side note: because I am retarded, I have a malingering tendency to refer to the Kennedy Center as the Lincoln Center. I can't keep my Presidential centers straight, it is quite annoying, so forgive me if I mess it up unintentionally.] The Kennedy Center has a free concert every day of the year, but this was some big special anniversary of free concerts or something, so they got a bunch of awesome Broadway singers to come in and a bunch of awesome Broadway composers to play for them. Or so I thought. Anyway, David and I got there early to stand in line for the tickets. and much to our surprise were only about 100 people back or so. I think the cold weather worked in our favor, and most people came much later than usual, so we ended up with Orchestra front and center which was awesome. Our friend Christina called after we were there and came over too, but by the time she got there she was probably close to 1000 people behind us. However through some twist of fate she ended up with a seat not too far away from us, so that was nice.

The concert started with Stephen Schwartz (who wrote Pippin and Wicked), and as he sits at the piano the moderator starts asking him lots of questions, how he got started in the business, who were his role models, how does he go about writing a song. Then he sang "The Wizard and I", but prefaced it with two early versions of the song, and told us why they didn't work and why they made the changes they did. And suddenly I realized I was in for much more of a treat than I'd expected. This wasn't just a quickie concert of some greatest Broadway hits. They had four composer teams (Schwartz, Jeanine Tesori, Flaherty/Ahrens, and Frankel/Korie) who all gave anecdotes and talked about their work while an amazing lineup of singers gave us examples. So we got Brian Stokes Mitchell singing "Wheels Of A Dream", Adriane Lenox singing "Lot's Wife", and Carpathia Jenkins singing "Spark Of Creation". As a bonus Jeanine Tesori sang one of her songs from the recently opened "Shrek: The Musical", and in addition to having a few cast members singing a song from Frankel/Korie's about-to-open "Happiness" (at, of course, the LINCOLN Center), Scott Frankel also sang a song from a show they are writing based on the Johnny Depp movie "Finding Neverland". In short, it was totally freaking awesome. The highlight, for me, was seeing the incomparable and still in perfect voice Liz Callaway sing "Meadowlark" live with Stephen Schwartz at the piano. And this was free people! I love living in a big city.

Since this was a special concert, it was held in the big theatre. As we sat down and looked around, I recognized it from watching the Kennedy Center Honors, which for some reason was kind of exciting. The stage itself is ginormous. Maybe this year we will try and see an actual production there.

Daughters Of The Revolution like creepy dolls

NOTE: I wrote this post back in December sometime, saved the draft so I could attach the picture, and then got busy with other things. It is January now, but better late than never.

Yesterday was one of those super nice days where, despite the intermittent rain, it was 60 degrees outside, which is always appreciated at this time of year. At least by yours truly, as we all know David is insane and was dissapointed he didn't get snow. Weird, right?

He found out about an open house at the Daughters of the Revolution headquarters, and since they advertized free refreshments, I tagged along. I had other incentive, because we also met up with Christina, a friend of his from college who has a super cool job in the government getting pro-environment bills passed. We walked through the ellipse past the White House Christmas Tree, which is decorated with a hair-net of lights, which is kind of weird and funny looking, but whatever. I still like christmas trees, regardless of how badly they are lit. The DAR headquarters is in a beautiful historic building just down the street from the White House, so getting a chance to look around was cool. In the center was a huge library where they have all of their massive collection of geneology, and a few choirs took turns with the Christmas carols. One group was a foursome of women, and I noticed one was reading her lyrics from a choirbook in braille. I found that fascinating, and wonder if she was just reading lyrics, or do they have notations for music also written in braille?

The office rooms located all around the building have been "sold" to various states, who come in and decorate the rooms with historical furniture. I don't know why. But some of the old wall papers and rugs were pretty awesome. Upstairs they have what they call the "Children's Attic", and the docent there was very excited to tell me that the room had been decorated for Christmas by showing a childhood fantasy of all the old dolls having a Christmas tea party, because, you know, after everyone goes to sleep the dolls come to life and have a tea party. Of course, being fully aware that after the tea party the dolls were going to go on a murderous rampage and kill everyone in the house, I got out of the room while the going was good. As if any doll isn't evil enough, these were all 150 years old with matted hair and fading face paint and totally looked like zombie dolls that just wanted to eat brains. That docent was on crack or something, very, very creepy.

They also had door prizes, and we were confident we were going to win...and we did! Well, Christina did, which was close enough. She got a spectacular not-to-be-forgotten official Daughters Of The Revolution coffee mug. David and I were very supportive. (And happy we didn't have to carry home yet another mug to a home where no one drinks coffee, although they do sometimes come in handy for dipping cookies into milk.)

Afterwards Christina took us to this awesome little restaurant she knew that uses all farm-fresh food and stuff. We had to wait like an hour to get in, but boy was it worth it. All the food was delicious, and I can't wait to go back and try some of the other things on the menu.

Gettysburg

Truth be told I wasn't all that excited about going to Gettysburg. It just didn't seem like something that would be all that interesting, but boy was I wrong. History is super exciting under the right circumstances, and the museum and car audio tour (you listen to a CD while you drive around the battlefield) are all really well presented. The strategies, the ebb and flow of the battles, it all comes to life as you learn about just what happened. It also didn't hurt that my dad and Uncle Rod are nerds and knew a ridiculous amount of trivia about the events, which also helped sweeten the experience.

I think it helped a lot that we were there at a perfect time of year. The weather was perfect, the trees were just starting to turn which was gorgeous, and it wasn't as crowded as I'm sure it gets in the summer months, and this all helped take away some of the creepiness of places like the Wheatfield and Devil's Den.

What is amazing is that this wasn't really that long ago. America is such a young country. For the first time I understood why Southerners might still have some pride in the Confederate Flag. I mean, I'm glad they got whooped, because there is no good argument for slavery, even dressed up as "states rights". But for the common man, who were the ones actually out there doing the combat, it really was a matter of pride, and I can understand wanting to honor that. (Of course I can still understand why African-Americans would be offended by honoring that, which is what makes it a complicated issue.)

We went on what really was a pretty bad ghost tour once it got dark. Our guide was very charismatic and fun, but couldn't tell a good story to save his life. I guess I'm doomed to be a theatre critic for the rest of my life, but David and I just giggled to each other at every tortured segue. It was still fun to be out and about at night, and I never turn my nose up at a walk, so overall it was a lot of fun. But still I was hoping for something actually, you know, scary.

We had some really good apples. And french fries. And homemade chocolates. One store had a bag of "chocolate babies", which was a bag of chocolate in the shape of little babies. I couldn't decide if it was funny or creepy. (We didn't buy them.)

So if you get the chance, go out there. We spent two full days, and probably could have found more to do if we'd had the time. Very fun and interesting. Funny that I've lived in DC over a year, and with the possible exception of the Lincoln Memorial, I really haven't gotten into the history of this city. The White House just seems like a modern building to me, so it was surprising seeing photos of it with Union troops lined up outside. I love that. The American History Museum has been closed since we arrived for renovations, but it should be opening back up again this November, and I can't wait to go visit.

As usual, had a great time with my family. Even if my mom popped the air mattress. ::grin:: You're welcome back anytime!

At least no one threw up this time

Yesterday we went to Six Flags. We figured it we should probably use our season passes one last time, since we've only gone twice all summer. It was just as ghetto as ever, with broken rides all over the place, although not as bad as last time. Although I still am not sure how comfortable I am riding a roller coaster that was closed for maintenance just a half hour ago.

Anyway, safe or not, we at least got to ride all our favorite rides. Meaning the three rides that are actually good. Two of them were broken for a while. And the ridiculous bad and inefficient way they manage their rides will never cease to amaze me. I mean, I could do better. But whatever, the park was almost empty so we only actually had to wait for the Batman ride. When it was our turn we tried to get on, but the safety vest was closed and I couldn't get it to release to get in. The attendant finally made it over and fiddled with it and said "I guess it is broken". So I said "OK, then I guess we will have to wait for the next car." And he said "Are you sure?" Um, what is my other option? Riding the ride that hangs you upside down without wearing the seatbelt?

On the way out we notice we are just in time to see a live musical revue show. These kinds of shows are, of course, always bad, but can be totally enjoyable in their own way, so we sat down. We ended up with mothers taking photos on either side of us, so we knew we had to be on our best behavior and not laugh at things too much. The show started, and it was just as awesome as we'd hoped/feared, filled with humiliating choreography and medleys that included songs from "Rent" to Christian pop. Then about ten minutes in, the show lurches to a stop and a voice says "Due to technical difficulties we have to stop the show." This park is so ghetto that even the live shows break down!


Then we drove over to Roosevelt Island, which we've heard about but never gone to, and just walked around for a while. Very pretty, and we even saw a deer. Actually, it is kind of funny, because David can find bugs hiding on the bottom side of leaves, but he is totally blind to anything larger than a small dog. The deer practically walked right up to us on the side of the trail and he walked right by it, much like he did the moose in Newfoundland, but the deer wasn't even hidden behind a bush.

The statue of Roosevelt is kind of funny looking. Doesn't he seem to be screaming "Dang kids! Get off my lawn!"

Happy Memorial Day!

Kyle, Liz and I took the totally awesome tour of the Capitol Building. Unlike last time I went, this time Congress was actually in session, and they let us go in and watch a little. In the Senate, they were voting to confirm some circuit judge. Following what was going on was a bit confusing (the Senate Rules are famously Byzantine), but it was nice hearing a few of the Senators give good wishes to Ted Kennedy. None of the Presidential candidates were there, but I was surprised at how many of the other Senators I recognized, my old Senators Feinstein, Boxer, Dominichi, Schumer, and even Specter, Webb, and that guy from Louisiana that hired the hookers. (That probably applies to most of them, but I think his name was Vitter.)

Then we went over to the House, which was mostly empty, but was far more entertaining as we watched a handful of them fight over drilling for oil in Alaska. It basically went something like this:

Republican dude: "Drilling good!"
Democrat dude: "Drilling bad!"
Republican dude: "I respectfully disagree with my colleague who is totally awesome in every way except in the way he is retarded."
Democrat dude: "I am honored to debate this issue with my colleague who is totally smart and popular and pretty, but on this issue is still a complete and utter tool."

It was pretty funny. They had charts and everything, but everyone was very aware of the cameras. Just kind of surprising that no one really said anything that wasn't already said like four years ago. Since coming to DC I am much more aware of the importance of having a good transportation policy (one that discourages driving and encourages carpooling and public transportation), yet none of these issues were addressed. Just a big paper fight for the TV. ::sigh::

Then we picked up David and went to see "Iron Man". Not knowing anything about the character, I enjoyed the movie, though I would have wished for a little more action and a little less of the origin story which was a little long. It all felt like a prequel getting us ready for the inevitable sequel when the movie will really start. Also, I can't say it enough times, but I HATE IT WHEN THE BAD GUY IS THE HERO'S BEST FRIEND. It is Hollywood's most favorite thing to do, and I always find it incredibly tedious. But whatever, at least Jeff Bridges is awesome. I even liked Paltrow, which was unexpected, although she has a stupid name and it bugged me every time they said it.

What was most fun about it was watching Kyle, who, shall we say, was *really* enjoying himself. When the friend saw the second suit and was all "Next time", Kyle practically started hyperventilating. Then when the other guy was like "Just call us Shield" I thought I was going to have to whip out my mad nursing skills to save Kyle as his eyes rolled back in his head and he started moaning. (To be fair, about three other guys in the theatre made the exact same noises.) Don't even get me started on the whole Sam Jackson thing, which was completely meaningless to me but made Kyle very, very happy.

Anyway, this was hardly "X-2" caliber, but was still a lot of fun. But I wish I could see more movies with my brothers. (Also, for the record, there is no one more fun to watch "America's Funniest Home Videos" with. Holy crap that boy can laugh.)

Since everyone left I've been working every day (to make up for the week I took off). As of Friday I've moved to working night shifts. I've been working one or, rarely, two nights a week for a while now, but now I'm gonna try all night shifts for a while, so's I can have my weekends off to play with David at Six Flags this summer. So far it seems to be going pretty well. My last shift, which when I signed up for a Saturday night on a holiday weekend I worried we would be understaffed and crazy busy, was actually one of the slowest shifts I've had. All four of my patients were like "i just want to sleep, so leave me alone for as long as possible." If you insist! I'm back again tonight, so we'll see how it goes. Just hope I can find a middle ground for my sleep schedule so I can still play with David and not just sleep all day every day.

We were walking by the Capitol last night, and there was some big holiday concert going on. It was far too crowded to tempt us over to try and watch, but we heard some awesome mezzo sing the National Anthem. Kind of fun to have that caliber of thing going on just a mile from your house. But we were too busy taking silly photos of each other. God bless digital cameras.

We love visitors! (continued)

Erin, we miss you already!

Albuquerquian-Erin came to visit us, and I think we wore her out, I hope her family isn't too resentful, but we walked her socks off. We toured the mall, we "oooh"-ed over Jeffersons draft of the Declaration of Independance (complete with cross hatches and margin writing), we "ahhh"-ed over the monuments at night. We drove out to Great Falls and tried not to fall in the water, because, the signs all warned, we would surely die if we did. ("If you fall in, you will die.") Fortunately, we didn't. We took her to the lily-pad garden, which happened to be on the same day that the great-great granddaughter of the original owner was visiting. Unfortunately, all the rain last week flooded the garden, so all of the pools had been overflowed from the Potomac, and were crammed with fish. These fish were none too happy about their new home, and were desperately trying to swim out over the flooded land bridges into neighboring pools to find a way out. Which created a great show for us as these big fish were half-exposed as they slithered like sea-monsters over the barely submerged land. It was pretty darn cool.

We went to the theatre, and saw Chita Rivera and George Hearn in "The Visit" at the Signature. Totally weird! There was a movie version made years ago with Ingrid Bergman that I would love to see, but it isn't available on DVD yet. Basically this poor gypsy leaves town, becomes supersupersuper rich, and returns when she is an old woman to exact some revenge. It is totally creepy and perverse, and while we all had plenty of problems with the plotline, we were always entertained. Plus, I mean, it's Chita Rivera! Throughout the show she was walking with a cane (her character had a wooden leg), and every so often would get this quiver in her legs. We were all sad that this amazing dancer was finally starting to feel her age - she is well into her 70s by now. But at the end of the show she runs out for her curtain call and is walking totally fine. Talk about good acting! Also in the audience was choreographer Ann Reinking (this was like the third preview performance) and it was fun watching her just beam during all the dance numbers. At one point a few lines got a little shaky, and poor Ann sunk so deep in her seat we could barely see her. It was quite funny. After she show we got to talk with Karen Murphy, who David did a National Tour with in "The Wizard of OZ" a few years ago (she was the Wicked Witch). She is a very funny lady, and as soon as this closes she is headed to LA to play the drunk in the new "9 to 5" musical. I can't wait to see that!

Let's see. We ate some super yummy food. We drove over to Annapolis for lunch one day, which is a very quaint town, and ate lunch in a tavern George Washington used to frequent, and I had some incredible crab cake. We took her to our favorite restaurant in Dupont Circle and she had the butternut squash ravioli and I had some parmesean encrusted grouper and, well, I forget what David had but it was equally delicious. Something with mushrooms probably.

My brother Kyle and his cutie-patootie girlfriend arrived after finishing up their semester internship at Disney World, and we took them all on a night-time visit to the major monuments which was a lot of fun. The highlight was the Korean War Memorial, which was incredibly effective at night. Oh, we also made fondue. And Erin brought us some fresh green chile and also some tortillas from Frontiers. You non-New Mexicans have no idea what that means, but pretend you moved somewhere that didn't have, say, sugar. And that you had to go an entire year without eating any sugar at all. And then at the end of a year someone brought you some fresh, pure, sugar straight from the cane fields in Hawaii. How much would you love that person? That is how we felt towards Erin when we were eating breakfast burritos. (She even brought extra, so I have more in the freezer!!!!!)

Yesterday we were all feeling a bit tired, so we went to a movie. Nothing impressive, we went straight for the mindless romantic comedy - "What Happens In Vegas". But it was just what our tired bodies needed. Plus, way funnier than we expected. Rob Cordry is much-missed at the Daily Show, but I hope he finds his path cause that boy cracks me up.

We got to watch a video of Erin doing a production of "Ruthless", which was quite hysterical. (Like I said before Erin. Never. Stop. Belting.) Made us miss our Albuquerque peeps even more. (Max, that was just...wrong. lol)

Last night we went to a cabaret to hear some locals sing. If you, like me, are of the South Park generation and think a beautiful woman in an evening gown using profanity is funny, YouTube Gilda Radner singing "Talk Dirty To The Animals". I was crying with laughter.

This morning I was faced with the difficult task of taking Erin back to the airport. ::frown:: When we got there my body even betrayed us and I drove right to the "arrivals" terminal and had to circle the airport again to go back to the "departure" gate. We miss you Erin! Luckily she promised to come visit us again when we are in Hawaii.

Kyle and Liz are still her for another few days, so I have some more sights to see. My dad arrives tomorrow night for another of his quick business visits. Then back to work on Thursday, so I might not have time to blog about them for a few days. I am pretty darn tired, but am having lots of fun. Fortunately the kids are sleeping in - it is 10:30 and they are still out of it, so I had some time to myself to write this. I bet if I start making pancakes it will wake them up, what do you think?

Pick your fluid, I saw it

For the record, our days in DC are limited. This is the first time I've ever loved spring so much, DC really blossoms and the weather has been fantastic the last week or so. Unfortunately David is allergic to it, forcing him to hide indoors at times where I desperately want to go out for walks. We'll see how long it lasts. But we won't survive long in a city where David can't go outdoors on the most beautiful days of the year. Apparently it is a tree of some sort. Hope it drops its flowers soon whatever it is.

This weekend at work: a big, tall, burly guy walks out of his room and yells at me "It is cold in my room! I'm calling the police!". A little later a white lady doctor tries to talk to him and he shouts at her "Get out of my room white woman!". She came out and jokingly asked me if I thought this would be a good time to talk to him about stopping his drug use. Heh. Happily I only had to deal with him for one shift. He was definitely a guy nurse patient though, all the girls were scared of him. He snuck through his shared bathroom and totally freaked out the woman in the next room. He retreated, but then started asking what her name was. We moved him across the hall pretty quickly.

I also took care of another gentleman who has been on our floor for week, very confused following a stroke. He talks a lot, but very little of what he says makes any sense. We'd had a pretty good weekend, but then he got it in his head he wanted to leave. The more agitated he got, the more we had to stop him from leaving, and the more we held him back the more combative he got until he started hitting, kicking, and spitting. He's been on so much Valium and Benadryl and Seroquel that the drugs hardly touch him, and even after some Haldol he was screaming and fighting us, so we had to put him in four point restraints. It was very clear we were doing it for his own safety, but still it has been haunting me, I hate having to tie someone down. In his head, all his talking must make sense, and it must be terribly frustrating for him. I had him again last night, and he was a bit calmer (he wasn't violent) but still very agitated and wanting to leave. Fortunately his IV is the only thing left that he could pull out (the feeding tube and foley are gone), so I was at least able to release one of his hands, which calmed him down. As soon as I released his other hand though he started trying to get out of bed to head for the door, so we had to keep that one. Poor guy.

Otherwise it was the weekend of bodily fluids. One guy throwing up. A lot. One guy with pins in his leg that were bleeding all over the place. Two guys with tracheostomies coughing up lots of boogers. The confused guy was pooping. Another with a PEG tube into his stomach that came open and leaked the chocolate shake I'd given him a few hours earlier all over his bed. None of it is fun, but somehow it is always the boogers that gross me out the most.

The weird thing, is that other than the restraints, which really bothered me, I am really liking my job. It is tiring, and can be stressful, and sometimes I don't eat for 12 hours and sometimes my legs hurt from never sitting down, and there is always another piece of paperwork to fill out. But I have to say it feels pretty good when people say thank you after a long day.

When you've been together as long as we have...

Our friends Rick and Jeffrey came to visit this past weekend. We met Jeffrey on tour with the Disney show in Taiwan ten years ago. I can't believe that was ten years ago! Like David and I, they have been together for 15 years, and like David and I, they are weird, but in all the right ways.

You can read what Rick had to say here. We had a great time, even though I had to work one of the days they were here. As is par for the course for us, we walked blisters into poor Rick's feet. We love company, and if you are reading this we probably want you to come visit us too, but I can guarantee we are going to walk you to the Capitol Building, which is a mile from our house, and then it is another good walk down the Mall to all the museums and monuments. It adds up. So start working on your callouses before you get here!

We had perfect weather the first few days they were here, and took full advantage of being outdoors. Then the rain came, which really just gave us an excuse to stay home and visit a little more, which was just as much fun. We geocached, we fondued, we saw the Hope Diamond. Rick FINALLY made us a Friend Frame, and it is totally creative and awesome. We've had a few additions recently so are going to have to add a new row of frames to the wall. I love that!

Also, Rick and Jeffrey basically promised that when David and I move to Hawaii they are going to move there too. I'm sure I didn't misinterpret that. And I'm holding them to it.

When they left they headed up to New York to see a few Broadway shows, so of course I'm totally jealous. Also, we showed them the MTV airing of "Legally Blonde" which we still have saved on the Tivo. Jeffrey was all "I don't really care to watch that", but once it had been on about, oh, thirty seconds, he sat down mesmerized and enjoyed the entire thing with us. As for me, I enjoyed it even more on a second viewing. It may not have quite the charm of the movie, but it comes close, with a perfect performance from Christian Borle and lots of fun laughs.

Our next special guest star will be our bestest friend from Albuquerque, Erin. Then Kyle and Liz, and my Dad. Next month will be busy! But in a great way. The allergy season has hit in earnest for David (fortunately just after the boys left), and I hope it will ease up a little for him before Erin gets here. Cause there are plenty of outdoors adventures we want to take her on. Can we say Six Flags???

Breaking: Fire Alarm causes evacuation of the Newseum on opening day!

Today was the perfect day. When I left to walk to the gym, I almost just kept walking because it was so nice out. Warm, but with a refreshing breeze. I was so happy.

After the gym I took another two mile-ish hike over to the Newseum. The Newseum is a brand new museum here in DC dedicated, obviously, to the news. It wasn't that I was dying to immerse myself in, er, news, but today was opening day, which meant that admission was free. After today admission is $20 a person. In a city of free, completely awesome museums, I'm not exactly sure who they think is going to pay $20, but hey, that is their problem not mine.

So I get there, and as expected there is a pretty long line. But it is moving fast, and like I said it was beautiful out, so I didn't really mind. I started looking through the brochure, and I'm not really seeing anything that is really catching my eye (no, I really don't want to pretend I am a reporter or editor on the interactive floor, thank you, and I got quite enough 9/11 imagery living in NY to last me for forever.) But on the first floor is a collection of Pulitzer Prize winning photographs, which is the one thing I'm actually really intrigued by. I finally get in, and just as I've looked at about five photos, the fire alarm goes off. ::sigh:: Like most everyone else, I ignored it for as long as I could, and made it through most of that exhibit. A very meak, confused employee was trying to make people leave, but everyone was mostly ignoring him. Then someone else came through and said it was a false alarm. Then another person came through and said, no, we had to leave. So I did. Outside, the line was still moving, which meant that the employees at the front door were still letting people in, and I could see people inside climbing staircases to the upper floors. So I guess it was just the ten people where I was that had to leave. YOU ARE DEAD TO ME NEWSEUM!

I suppose I could have waited in line again, but the fire alarm was still going off, so after another five minutes of waiting I gave up and came home. I saw what I wanted at least. I'm really baffled at who their audience will be. It does seem that you get a nice view from the upper level anyway, but that is about the only question I'm left with.

After I got home for a while, I left again to walk over to David's school and walk him home. About half-way there I realized that I'm getting an awful lot of sun today, and I wonder if I'm going to be a little on the pink side tomorrow. I don't care, today was what every day should strive to be.

I'm working all weekend. Getting excited for our company next week!

Oh, so Idol is curiously boring this season. Which is weird, because I still think it is their most talented bunch ever. But we've had like two weeks in a row of fairly boring performances. I can't even get that upset over Michael Johns leaving. I mean, he left too early, but it wasn't like he was going to win, he was only good covering Queen songs, and how long could that last? I still think Archletta is the most adoptable, Carly is the best singer but the worst dresser, that David is growing on me but Simon was right and he was SUPER PRETENTIOUS this week which annoyed me, and that Brooke and Dredlocks are basically the same person with different hair. Also Brooke needs to stop talking back. And stop crying. And Carly and Kristy need to stop being all passive-aggressive with their "shock" when they don't get voted off. If you want to be a star you need to grow some balls already, holy cow. That said, how awesome is Dolly Parton? Even if she is reaching that age where she can't really sing anymore, she is still more awesome than any of those Idols will ever be.

So who do you think will sing "Memory" for Andrew Lloyd Webber week? Will Dredlocks be savvy enough to find the Laurie Beechman guitar-cover of "Love Changes Everything"? And which song from Superstar will David sing? (please let him find the Australian cast album - or maybe ""High Flying Adored") Wouldn't it be awesome if Brooke sang "Another Suitcase, Another Hall"? Yeah, right. But I could go with a little "Tell Me On A Sunday". I bet Syeshia goes for "Music of the Night" or something ridiculous, given her recent track record.

More visitors, and some DC Christmas Cheer

We've had a few more visitors that deserve a blog mention. First up was our friend Cullen who is on tour with "Avenue Q". We haven't seen him in a few years, but like most of our long-term friends, it feels like we'd never been apart. He also has great hair. He has always had great hair, now that I think about it.

Hmmm, I needed a quick moment, but I'm over hating him for that now.

He is up for a big role in a musical that I haven't seen but everyone seems to like, so lets all send him good energy!

Then last week our friends Zane and Wendy came. Everyone calls them Zane and Wendy, but for some reason I like to call them Wayne and Zendy. I've only done this once to their faces. I honestly don't do it on purpose either, but that is how I refer to them almost every time, which started out kind of embarrassing but now just makes David laugh at me. I had to work both days they were here, so I didn't get to do any of the fun sightseeing with them, but still it was fun to hang out while I could. Our house loves having Albuquerque faces inside! Sadly we were lame and didn't get any photographic evidence of their trip.

Last night we had a nice Christmas moment. We walked over to the Botanical Gardens, which we could do because the weather is happily cooperating and staying in the low 40s, which is completely tolerable as long as the wind stays out of it. Anyway, they have this big train set up outside, which usually isn't really my thing, but somehow it was extremely compelling and I sort of lost myself staring at it, until two little kids biffed it to my left and started crying and some random crowd guy just kept making that "ohhhh!!" sound you make when you see something that hurts, but he kept making it over and over even after the parents were busy consoling the kids, so it must have been a pretty spectacular biff.

So, the moment broken, we went inside. They were supposed to have live music playing, and walking through the botanical gardens at night with Christmas music playing live sounded pretty sweet. When we get there, it turns out to be a little folk band, and they are playing some Yiddish song. (I say that without the faintest idea of what "Yiddish" actually means, but it sounds appropriate to what I was hearing.) Which, hey, I'm liberal, I'm all for including other faiths into the holiday celebrations, even if it wasn't even the dradel song, just some random thing with no words. Worse, when that song was finished, they start playing a Beatles song. Listen, I came for Christmas music, not "Eight Days A Week", ok? Anyway, the music was a big bust, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the garden, which is still totally cool. They also had these sculptures of many of the famous buildings/memorials in town made all from plants. It sounds kind of silly, and is, but in a cool way. Then we sat down because one of my favorite smells in the universe is of plants and earth and green, and this completely adorable little girl, just barely walking, entertained us by continually licking a tree. Not really licking, more like open mouthed kissing. It was so adorable that when I said to David "C'mon, you want to have kids, right?" he admitted "Maybe if ours could be like that one". Score! I'm breaking down the wall a little at a time. Thanks anonymous cute baby girl that likes to taste trees!


On the way home we stopped by the Congressional Christmas tree. Dang I love this time of year.

The post that is all about me trying to stay awake

Tomorrow night I work my first night shift, so I'm trying to stay up late tonight to get myself ready. It is only 12:30 and I'm barely making it. I suspect I will like the slower pace of the night shift, at least the part with the fewer demands on how much I need to get done. On the other hand, I really do like being so busy I can't take lunch, because the day just goes by so much faster. I'm a little afraid tomorrow night is going to be LONG, and I'm going to resort to drastic measures such as drinking Coke or something nasty like that. (I know, you thought I was going to say coffee, but I only drink fresh coffee brewed for me by the owner of the Vietnamese coffee plantation, and even he had to douse it with half cream, I have standards you know.)

Today was a good day. I flicked urine red with blood clots at my nurse educator. Not on purpose or anything, my nurse educator is pretty rad. But I was flushing a foley catheter and it spurted when I disconnected it. Luckily she was holding a collection cup at just the right spot and it hit that instead. This is merely one example of why I wear my glasses instead of my contacts at work. You never know when a shield is going to come in handy.

It snowed today. As much as I hate everything that snow represents (i.e. coldness), I have to say that from the windows of the hospital it was really, really pretty. Then walking out to the bus it was warmer than you would have thought and again, really pretty. I think it is that I love falling snow, and snow that collects in places other than where i have to walk, as long as I'm never cold. We almost went for a walk when I got home, but it was getting mushy and that is no fun to walk around in. David got to go see the lighting of the Capitol Christmas Tree tonight while I was at work, lucky dog. He said it is pretty amazing. I'll go check it out this weekend I imagine.

Dang, 12:42, I wish I typed slower. I was hoping to make it to 1am at least, but I am currently dying inside, so of to bed with me. I just hope I'm able to sleep in, because if I still wake up at 5:15, which is quite possible, then I'm really going to be messed up tomorrow night. lol

Things I want to say

Thing #1. Working three days in a row sucks for me, but is awesome for my patients. Continuity of care really goes a long way, by the third day I practically could have taken care of them blindfolded, which meant I had more time to give backrubs and hold hands. So that part was good. But boy was I pooped! Actually it was the night after the second day that was the worst, knowing I had to come back again. The third night I was actually a little wired knowing I'd finished my first long weekend and now had four days off to look forward to.

I also had another "trouble" patient who gave me absolutely no trouble at all, except for getting caught smoking in the bathroom. But he was having a simultaneous attack of both the shingles and acute gout, so even though I made him promise me he wouldn't do it again (using the whole "there is oxygen in the room and the entire floor could explode!" line of reasoning) I still could understand him wanting to get a little relief any way he could.

Thing #2. I'm still trying to talk David into coming to work at the hospital as a tech. He came home with another big bruise, which actually doesn't bother me because he will bruise if you look at him too hard, but still I'm taking whatever ammunition I can. He still has these nasty looking scratches down his hands which make me angry everytime I see them, even though I know his kids are challenged and can't always help it. Everyday he comes home and tells me about yet another random person he barely knows in the school who comes up to him in a hallway and tells him they are hearing really good things about him. Which means that not only is everyone noticing his awesomeness, but they are talking about it amongst themselves. Yesterday someone came to his room and started handing out mysterious envelopes to all the adults. Someone got spooked and asked "What are these about?" and another girl said "Don't worry, David got one so it must be about something good!" But as much as I know he deserves the compliments (I have no doubt that if he stayed there long enough they would make him principal, he really is that awesome at what he does), I wish they would stop so he'd leave sooner. As long as they keep stoking his ego it is making my job of getting him to quit all that much harder.

Thing #3. I made the mistake of watching Leonard DiCaprio in "The Beach" on television yesterday. As much as the second half of the movie is totally lame, it still made me super nostalgic for my own days of adventuring through Thailand and Cambodia. I want to take a nice big trip so bad, and I know it is realistically going to be a while. Not only do I need to get my student loans paid off, and the intention is to do so in far less than the ten years they give you, but our next vacation is pretty much set. My little brother is doing a semester internship thing at Disneyworld, so we are going to drive down next spring and see him and his girlfriend (who also got the internship) and the parks all at the same time. With any luck more family will be able to make it too. But we aren't going home for the holidays (I don't want to end up a statistic of someone who was stranded in an airport for three days, and you know those stories are coming, even the airlines are predicting that), and while several of my family members have made it to see us here (in fact my parents are coming again this weekend) I haven't been to Idaho to see his family in, what, a year and a half now? Plus his sister just had a new baby and we are both dying to see the little tyke. (Christine, if you are reading this, isn't it about time you emailed out some pictures???) So that is a trip that is going to have to happen, probably next summer/fall sometime.

But I'm dreaming of Machu Picchu. Or even Paris. After Christmas my preceptor is leaving for South Africa to do a two week gig teaching local nurses how to care for HIV/AIDS patients, so I'm hating on her with jealousy right now. I even literally had a dream that I took her and my manager to Singapore, and in the dream was so excited that I got to share with them the smell of equatorial Asia. (There is a smell, it smells like, well, green, and even though you can only smell if for like five minutes when you first get there, it is one of the most powerful and fricking awesome smells I've ever known.) I also want to go back to Asia, I want to take David to Cambodia and, especially, Angkor Wat. I want to take cooking classes in Thailand (banana pancakes!) and go on an elephant trek and ride the Meekong through Laos and go to Halong Bay in northern Vietnam. I don't need to do the whole "find myself" tour again, that was what my last trip was for. Now I just want to have the adventure, and to share it with David. ::sigh:: For Christmas all I want is lottery tickets. Strike that. For Christmas all I want is winning lottery tickets. (It is best to be specific when you visualize.)

Thing #4. Skip this thing if you aren't a musical theatre nerd, but I'm in that in-between stage with my dreams, where slowly I'm having fewer dreams of being on stage and more and more dreams about being in the hospital. But the other day I dreamed that I'd gone back to LA and was putting on an encore performance of "Crazy For You" that I did 1996. During the show I looked out and saw Elmarie Wendell in the audience, and I got all super excited, and as soon as the show was over I ran out in the parking lot to find her, and I couldn't find her (but I did tell Tracy Lore that I'd be right back to talk to her) but finally I saw her and then I woke up as I was running up to her. I once did "Gigi" with Elmarie, and unless you are a nerd and know her from the original cast album of "Little Mary Sunshine" she played the landlady on "Third Rock From The Sun". How she found her way into my unconciousness twelve years later is a total mystery, but I think it is totally fabulous that I am having fanboy dreams about Elmarie Wendell. I'm a total nerd, and I love it.

Thing #5. How crazy is it that the Hollywood writers and NY stagehands go on strike at the same time? I'm curious about the stagehands, of all the Broadway unions they are undoubtably the strongest. But it is interesting watching public opinion. I think the stagehands have it crazy good compared to anyone else, so my sympathy isn't as strong as, say, it was for the musicians when they went on strike when I was on Broadway. But while I have more sympathy for writers, who I think should get royalties for internet usage of their work, I'm going to be very sad when they run out of episodes of "Pushing Daisies".

But can I just pick a bone here? All the sudden everyone is shouting the sky is falling and how we are just going to be overwhelmed with reality TV. And I ask, what the heck is wrong with that? If we get a lot more, of course much of it is going to be crap, but there will be some cream in there too. I have no interest in watching the lowest-common-denominator type of reality TV either, making people eat bull testes or get drunk and make out with each other. Too easy, too boring. But what isn't fantastic about watching real live people use their smarts to win a challenge, or to find the fastest way of driving from Amsterdam city to some outlying farm (yes I am watching Amazing Race and yes it is awesome as usual), or singing, or dancing, or whatever it is that they do really well. Real people are far more interesting that watching yet another person get killed in spectacularly bloody and perverted fashion and then watch Gary Sinise find the bad guy. Yawn. I don't want to watch more fake lawyers, or fake doctors, or silly sitcoms. The fact that I think "Pushing Daisies" is the best new show on TV since, well, "Wonderfalls", must tell you a little something about my tastes for the odd and the clever and the interesting. And scripted TV is rarely odd or clever or interesting. Maybe the first season of "Lost", mostly because of the whole deserted island thing, which I thought was way more awesome than the monsters and ghosts and unending conspiracies that the show has now embraced.

I have more autobiographies on my book shelf than anything else. Real people are awesome. Not "Girls Gone Wild" people maybe, but I'd rather watch a fabulous person remodel a house or cook a crab-cake hot dog or whatever then watch the latest rip-off of "LA Law" or "St. Elsewhere" or "Hill Street Blues". (And though I'm too young to know, I'm sure those were all rip-offs of something else themselves.)

Of course, I'd rather go scuba dive off of the Galpagos Islands than watch TV, but we don't always get our first choice.

Anyway, that is enough Things for today. David will be home soon and we are going to go on a nice long walk tonight, because it warmed up and we want to take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.

Todd pics

Since I'm putting up pics, here are some from when Todd was here.

Visitor fun and the finding of the green chile

We had another visit from an Albuquerquian. Steve used to do theatre (and grew up a few houses down from my parents), but for some reason decided to go to law school. So he's doing that now. In Baltimore. Yesterday he drove down and we walked around the Mall a bit. The Library of Congress was inexplicably closed, well, the signs all said open but the front door was locked. But we took him to the Supreme Court and the Air and Space Museum and then up to the Portrait Gallery which was pretty cool. We saw like half the cast of "1776". Plus a guy who looked like a vampire, and another one who looked like Dumbledore. Also, who knew, but the faux-mohawk was also fashionable in the early 1800's.

Then we had lunch at the American Indian Museum. And guess what they had? Green chile!!! I was so excited, I thought I would never find it outside of New Mexico. Perhaps it wasn't the best green chile I'd ever had, mind you, but it still tasted good on my bison burger. People have been recommending the cafe there for a long time, so it was fun to actually go. They have some very interesting stuff, lamb and salmon and baked turnips and all sorts of stuff. It isn't cheap either, the lady in front of me in line (this is a put stuff on your tray kind of place) paid $50 for two people. But boy did her selections look yummy. Ours worked out about $12 a head, which isn't terrible but just seems a lot in a cafeteria setting. Also a plus? Fry bread. Anyway, now I can go get a little taste of New Mexico if I need it.

Then we came home and he painted a frame for our wall of "friend frames". As will you when you come visit, we always like encouraging our guests to make a little art.

We'll be going to visit him up in Baltimore at some point, he has promised to take us to good crab cakes, which I have a weakness for. Plus they have a great aquarium, so it is a no-brainer.

Stuff, and why every movie needs a little TLC

Our houseguest left this morning. I'm currently waiting for a tow truck, sadly we left a door open or something and the battery died. Even more sad is that we got a jump and drove the car into Virginia where it cut out while we were driving. Of course my angels were with me and we couldn't have gotten stranded in a better place, a nice quiet safe residential neighborhood with ample street parking that I could coast into. Then we walked down to a theatre where we had tickets for "Merrily We Roll Along" at the Signature Theatre. It was an interesting if ultimately unsatisfying show, but we wanted to see it because it so rarely gets performed, and we brought Todd along as his birthday present. The good news is that, now having seen two productions at the Signature, which is one of the top theatres in the area, we see that David would be very competitive for getting acting work here. His job at the school is proving to be much more stressful that ever anticipated, so he is mulling over other options, and that would be a fun one.

I had to work the next day, so after the show we just got towed back to our house. When the tow truck gets here today I get the joy of hanging around the Toyota dealership while they inspect and tell me I need a new alternator, etc, and get an unexpected hefty bill. Ugh. I don't even have a book. ::sad face::

What else? We saw the movie "Across The Universe", and saw our BFF Tiffany listed in the credits having cast the movie. We saw her name on the Rent movie too, but that game will never get old, it is so exciting! I wish I could remember all the stories she told us when she was actively working on the movie, but that was a few years ago and I couldn't quite recall the fun stuff she had told us. (Like the main guy she discovered somewhere in England.) But still, I thought the cast totally rocked out. I don't really know the Beatles music all that well, so really only recognized maybe a quarter to half of the songs. But there are some pretty amazing visuals. The movie owes a lot to "Moulin Rouge", but still stands on its own merits. Julie Taymor is on crack in a totally different way from the way Baz Luhrmann is on crack, I don't know how people come up with stuff like that.

Maybe I'll post some pics later, but with Todd we took a tour of the Capitol Building, which is gorgeous, and went inside the Library of Congress, which is gorgeous. We went to our favorite Italian place near Dupont Circle and I had grouper with mango sauce and this risotto that was out of this world. We nixed the sushi last night because we were too tired to travel, and went to a local Thai place instead. Then we came home and watched "Pushing Daisies". I love that show! Weird and quirky and funny and satisfying. Plus, Kristin Chenowith singing "Totally Devoted". I hope they let her sing like all the time, that would make me sooooo happy. (But she does need better hair.)

It was like 90 degrees and humid on Tuesday, and today I think the high is 64, I can't believe how fast it cooled off. But it is fall I guess. I just need to go buy a pair of sweats to wear over my scrubs to get me to work.

Well, the tow truck should be here in the next half hour or so, so I'd better get ready to go. ::sigh::

I think I'm gonna like it here

I have to work this week four days in a row, never my favorite. Three and a half days of class, a day and a half on the floor. Today is the half day class/half day on the floor, and they are the worst because it is so awkward to come on mid-shift and try and pick things up.

However, no complaints, because yesterday was like the best weather day ever. Just that perfect temperature, not warm, not cool, just like that temperature that you can't feel at all, plus like one degree. It was gorgeous.

Also, did I mention I got a raise? Like six weeks on the job at the hospital is doing so well they gave everyone a 3.5% raise. It works out to almost another dollar an hour. How sweet is that? So far I'm really liking this working-man stuff.

Watch me do a Happy Dance

I am a happy boy.

I am also a total nerd/dorkasaurus, but you know that about me already, don't you?

This afternoon I met Matt. As in the number-one, original recipe, Dancing Man Matt. I'm sure I've shown or at least talked about this super freak guy to many of you before (I even have a link to his blog below), but for those of you new to His Awesomness, this is a guy who traveled around the world, took video of him dancing in front of Machu Picchu, elephants and Antartica, then spliced it all into a video and became internet famous for it. Then Stride gum company decided to sponsor him and sent him on another around the world trip, and he made another and even better video, and now, after a year of dancing on David Letterman and the Today show, is travelling around the world making yet a third video. I hate him so much that I must be in love.

But this time, instead of just dancing alone, he has been inviting people to dance with him. This is where David and I come into the picture, as his personal back up dancers. To be fair it wasn't just us, there were about 40 or so people that showed up. We met outside Union Station to sign up (and get free Stride gum!). There is a documentarian following Matt around, as well as a couple of reporters who were interviewing him and some of the other dancers. And there were some interesting fellow dancers. David wanted nothing to do with the reporters, but I said "Relax, we are way too boring for them to bother with", and I was totally right. One guy with crazy grey hair wore a big homemade Cat-In-The-Hat hat, and they loved talking to him. I heard him going on about how "Matt trancends the oneness that is all of us, reminding us that war is bad", and on and on and on. Another kid was rhapsodizing about all the things Matt represents, how he pulls cultures together and reminds us that we are all in this together. And hey, if he does all those things for you, then awesome. Personally, I get the feeling he is just a guy who likes to travel and dance and make fun videos, and I have a lot of fun watching them. But I'm just a simple guy with simple pleasures. At least the other dancers gave some interesting footage for the documentarian to use.

For my part, I was very excited/nervous about meeting Matt. I've been following his blog for over a year, and he talks about how awkward it can be meeting fans, and I didn't want to be annoying, so I got right to the point.

Me: "Hi, you're the Dancing Man! You totally rock!!"
Dancing Man Matt (who Totally Rocks): "Well you totally rock too!"

There were a bunch of people behind us to sign up, so, happy with his generous compliment, we moved along and bided our time. Bode our time? Whatever.

After they had everyone (old, young, nerds, jocks, quasi goth, parents, children, the whole spectrum), we walked over to this big fountain, behind which you could see the Capitol Building, and shot a couple of different videos there. It was really funny when we did a practice take the first time, and when Matt started dancing to get us in "the zone" we couldn't help it and broke into applause. lol He does the same dorky dance, which is basically his trademark at this point, and it was totally sweet to see live. When we took the video there was one lady tapping, and a couple of Europeans who seemed to be raving, but most of us just took Matt's lead and danced as badly as we could. All, of course, to the music in our minds. Then we walked a mile or so down the National Mall and took another video with the Washington Monument behind us, just so he would have some options come editing time. We were all dorks, and it was just a lot of silly fun.

After the dancing was done and my time had been well-boded, he was taking pictures with people and we asked him if we could get some video of me dancing with him, and he agreed! I was very impressed at how good a sport he was about everything, being the center of attention of a bunch of crazy nerds must be exhausting. I can't believe how many people asked him for a photo, and then once he was posing took like five minutes to figure out how to use their own cameras, but he never complained or hesitated. Or when we were walking to the different places and people would be like "Matt, so we could walk up this street three blocks and then over to to the Mall, and if the Mall is blocked off with fences I know this great spot..." and he would listen patiently and say "We scouted ahead this morning and know exactly where we want to go." Or one girl who out of nowhere yelled, "Matt! How about your next video could be naked dancing!" And he just smiled and said "Uh, Ok." At least the girl had enough sense after that to say "Now he's thinking, who invited that girl??"

I also learned a bit of gossip. He was in Africa and met up with Matt Lauer, who, by the way, I've heard is extremely charming and attractive in person, and this comes from Kathy Griffin herself, who I go to for all of my celebrity gossip as I'm sure she would never-ever lie, anyway Dancing-Man-Matt met him and Today-Show-Matt totally was embarassed to dance, and it took Al Roker to shame Today-Show-Matt into it. Now that sounds like good television.


Anyway, so I got a bit of footage of Matt and I dancing badly in front of the Capitol Building, which makes me forever happy. I'm trying to decide if this means I have to make another dancing video just so I can use it. But in any case the three of us got a photo. The new video has a tentative release date of June 21st of next year, so you are going to have to wait before I try and tell you where to look to see us (but you see from the photo we tried to dress colorfully). And of course there is also the possibility that he gets way better footage in Moscow and Zimbabwe and doesn't use our clip at all, but we'll all just have to wait and see.

I even took the day off from work to do this.

Happy, happy dork.

How I (almost) met Congressman Udall

A few days ago work sent all us new grad nurses on a scavenger hunt in the city. They split us into teams of 7-8 people, gave us a backpack with some water, an all-day Metro card and a $5 Starbucks card and said to be back at 3:00. I'd been campaigning pretty hard to make sure there was a prize for the winner, but in the end they said that a few years back someone was running to win and tripped and ended up on workmans comp so they don't do prizes anymore. Someone always ruins it for the rest of us.

But even without any real incentive, we had a great day. I saw the Hope Diamond, the Bill of Rights/Constitution/Magna Carta, we went to the WWII Memorial and the Einstein Monument and the Washington Monument. We went to one of the House Office Buildings and made like we were going to see a Congressman, but the Georgetown magazines they'd given us to give to our Congressman were from 2005, so we just took a picture outside of Congressman Udall's office instead. It is kind of weird that you can just walk into an office like that, but also pretty cool if you really had something you wanted to talk about.

We ended up being the last team back, which we were mocked for, and then no one was at all interested in what we had accomplished which was a little irritating since we'd done so much. But in the end I couldn't really complain, I met a couple of neat girls and we had a fun day in the sun, and was paid over $200 to do it. Not too bad.

Yesterday we went down to the river and wanted to go kayacking, but the winds were blowing and the only people out were the rowers. We walked along the Watergate and the Kennedy Center to see if the water would calm down, and eventually we did see two women working their way up the river in kayacks, but they didn't seem to be having any fun at all so I guess we might have to wait until spring to try out that idea. Besides the wind yesterday was the first day its been a little chilly. Not cold, it was like 75 degrees or something, but it certainly wasn't hot.

We walked home along the Mall, past a pro-War rally. "Support our troops, these colors don't run!!" Later we went to a movie and walked past a much larger anti-war rally. "Support our troops, bring them home!" I've decided anytime someone with a bullhorn mentions the troops, it is a 95% chance that everything else they say is bullshit. I'm also super glad we went to a rally already when we were green and could just laugh at the crazy guy behind us who would heckle the speakers with things like "Have you read Bill 8784936RD7864? It clearly says that you are a baby-eater!". OK, maybe they didn't say exactly that, but it might as well been, it was so annoying. And boy do those kind of people LOVE protests! So I've had the experience, but I kinda doubt I'd ever want to go to another. I'm just not a joiner, and don't really enjoy all the "Let's simplify a complex and multi-faceted argument into a dumbed-down lowest-common-denominator chant" part. Also there is always a contest to see which side can bring the most American flags, because, obviously, the more American flags you wave, the righter you are.

However, one twenty-somethingish guy walked by wearing a simple t-shirt that said "Please don't try to sell me drugs", which I thought was super awesome and funny.

Mid-rally we saw "Dragon Wars", which is possibly the worst movie I have ever paid to see. And my expectations were low to begin with, I totally expected it to be bad, but I didn't realize the level of badness to which it would fall. Whenever people stopped talking and the "dragons" a.k.a big snakes started tearing down buildings, then it was ok. But if I made the mistake of actually listening or paying any attention whatsoever to the plot I could feel the happiness being sucked right out of my soul. And this is coming from a person who likes Chinese kung-fu movies and Godzilla movies and so is used to bad dialogue and plot "twists". But this was so bad I was left physically uncomfortable and squirming in my chair in mental anguish. Why didn't we go see Jodie Foster kick bad-guy butt instead???

Anyway, long post. We are having some more fun this afternoon, I'm all excited and nervous and a total dorkasaurus, but I'll post something later tonight.

Seeing someone famous

We took my mother to the Eastern Market, which is a long-standing farmers market/craft fair/flea market in the neighborhood. The building that used to house it was seriously damaged by a fire the week before we moved here, pushing it all out into the streets on the weekends. I'm sure I've mentioned the superyum tomatoes we've been getting there. Anyway, they built a new temporary building across the street for all the vendors with meat and other perishables until the main building can be rebuilt, which had its grand opening this weekend. By sheer coincidence we wanted to take my mother. We not only got some crazy delicious heirloom tomatoes, some concord grapes, both a black and a white bell pepper (purple and pale yellow perhaps?), and some melt-in-your-mouth nectarines, but we also made our first political "celebrity" sighting in the form of the mayor of DC. He was there with a camera crew promoting the opening of the new building. David shook his hand, but I wasn't quick enough. He was young, and had a very friendly face.

It isn't quite the same thing as running into Alicia Silverstone in the grocery store, or Angelica Houston walking down your street, or even having Angelyne speed by in her pink car, all of which happened to us when we lived in LA. But then this is a different kind of town, isn't it?

Reason #398 I love my mom...

This weekend my mom was here. We had a nice dinner at Annie's in Dupont Circle, she took us to Costco for some food shopping, we went to the Iwo Jima Memorial, we made her cry showing her a photo montage I'd put together. We saw the movie "Stardust", which ties "Die Hard" as my favorite movie of the summer. Very inventive, clever, a great story with magic and plenty of laughs. Michelle Pfieffer must have had so much fun. And dang she is gorgeous.

But we also went to the "Bodies" exhibit, the one where they've dissected human bodies and filled it with some kind of plastic polymer so you can see all the muscles and arteries and organs and stuff. I believe there are some competing exhibits around the country, and this is probably the knock-off one, but it was still totally amazing. We had such a great time looking around. I even got to show off some medical knowledge when my mom started asking questions about anatomy and physiology stuff. But on the way out there was a sign that said something like "Ten body parts have names that are only three letters long, can you name them?" So we think and the conversation goes like this:

I say, "Eye."
Mom says, "Toe."
David says, "Arm."
I say, "Leg."
Mom says, "Lip."
David says, "Ear."

Pause.

Then my mom says, "Ass."

I have memories of my mom swearing about twice in my entire life, so needless to say I almost fell off the bench in laughter. Later, David came up with "Tit", but the little boy that he is, he couldn't bring himself to say the word in front of my mother so he spelled it out for us. I just don't think I could love my family any more than I do, they are all so darn adorable!!