A Weekend in our Nation's Capital...

It's been 5 months since I've last posted, but I wanted to record my trip we just took so you guys get to read it! :-)

This past weekend we spent 4 days in Washington, D.C.  While I had been there multiple times for school trips in the past, I was excited to go back as an adult.  Plus it had been years since I had been there anyway.  Trish was going there to run the Nike Women's Half Marathon (which she kicked ass at!) with her boyfriend and Hinkle and I tagged along.  I'm so glad we did.  Here's a recap of the weekends events (if I can remember them all...hopefully):

Thursday:  Hinkle and I took the 4:55 train out of 30th street station to Union Station (first long train ride ever).  We arrived in DC around 6:45 and got a cab (first cab ride ever) to our hotel (technically in Virginia but literally right outside of DC).  We checked in and met up with Trish and Rob and got a cab to Buffalo Wild Wings for some dinner and so the boys could watch the NFL draft.  We were there a few hours and then went back to the hotel.  We were in bed by 12 that night I think.  Both he and myself had worked that day before traveling so we were pretty beat.

Friday:  woke up around 8:30 and got breakfast.  Met up with Trish and Rob and took a cab to the American History Museum.  I had never been to that particular museum before (i'm pretty sure it didn't exist last time I was there) and it was alright, but not my favorite.  We had a good time though.  From there we walked (for what seemed like forever) to get to a burger place that a google search had told us was the best in D.C.  After walking forever (including past the White House where we stopped to take pictures) we got to the burger place, and google wasn't lying, they were delicious.  If you're ever in D.C. looking for somewhere to eat, Black and Orange is the place to go.  From there we spotted a martini bar across the street (Dirty Martini) and parked ourselves there for the next few hours.  Lots of drinks, making a new friend, and a ridiculous bar tab later, it was time to move on.  Trish and Rob retired for the night and I went to Georgetown with Hinkle to a piano bar (Mr. Smith's).  We weren't there long before we left and wandered down the road to a place called Clyde's where we got some food.  We were both pretty down for the count by that point and got a cab back to the hotel and called it a night.

Saturday:  Hinkle and I got up and took a cab to the zoo.  It was a nice place, your typical zoo, but we enjoyed ourselves.  We did get to see a gorilla drinking it's own urine, which was....revolting?  Animals are interesting haha.  From there we took a cab (are you seeing a theme here?) to a place google told us had the best outside dining in D.C.   Again, google wasn't lying.  We ended up back in Georgetown at a place called Tony and Joe's right on the water.  We parked ourselves there again for a few more hours. Trish and Rob met up with us eventually and we went to the mall at Tyson's Corner because Trish had to do some shopping and we were hungry.  We ate at a place called Gordon Biersch.  Food was DELICIOUS! After that it was back to the hotel and bed.  

Sunday:  got up and went with Rob to the finish line of the half to see trish finish! (1st metro ride).  Our metro guy was hysterical on our way there.  Trish did great!  Then we took the metro back to our hotel and got some food in Georgetown at a place called J. Paul's.  From there we parted ways and Trish and Rob went back to the hotel so Trish could rest a bit and Hinkle and I stayed and went back to Clyde's for drinks.  We met a couple there from Philly waiting for their train back so we enjoyed talking with them for a while.  Around 5 we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at the Capital Grille (which of course was delicious).  After a nice time there we all headed back to the hotel.  I think by this point we were all vacationed out (and i'm sure Trish was super exhausted from running that day) so we hung around the hotel room and went to bed.  

Monday: up early and on our way home.  Rob and Trish were kind enough to let us ride home with them so we didn't have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on train tickets.

This entry was long, so I apologize, but I like to remember what I do when I go places :-)  I think I want to start getting away for a few days like this every year.  Nothing crazy, just an extended weekend trip was fine with me.  It was nice to not be too terribly far from home, but still far enough to be able to consider it being "away", and I really had a great time with my friends.  We shall see.

Well, until next time friends.

Devastation

It's with a heavy heart that I come to my blog tonight.  Today's tragedy in Connecticut is burned into my brain forever.  Columbine was tragic.  Virginia Tech was tragic.  None of those people deserved what they faced that day.  However, this feels like a catastrophic event that we will never recover from. 27 people killed in the beginning of their school day.  18 of them innocent kindergartners.  18 dead 5 and 6 year old children.  18 children who probably woke up giddy about Christmas and Santa Claus and what presents they were going to get for christmas in 11 days.  18 children who were probably excited about weekend plans with their families and instead were terrorized by some maniac as soon as they got to their classroom to start the day.  18 families that are missing their precious babies, who now have a huge hole that nothing will ever fill.  And 8 other families grieving for their lost loved ones.  I cannot imagine the pain they feel.  I know the pain that I feel over this and I have never met any of these people.  It's devastating, gut wrenching, heartache.  I had to resist the urge to go yank my own daughter out of school today when I heard the news.  I know rationally that she was safe, but there was that small part of me just wanted her to never leave my side ever again.  We spend all of our time as parents protecting our kids from harms way.  What is the world coming to when sending them to school is giving them a death sentence?  When some psycho comes and kills his own mother and her classroom of youngsters?  It's incomprehensible.  Details are starting to come out about the murderer who cowardly took his own life after he was done destroying the world for the day.  He's apparently autistic.  You know what?  I don't care.  He lived 20 years without doing something like this.  I don't care how "sick" he is, how it's "not his fault" because he couldn't help himself.  The fact is that there's a special place in hell for him and I hope he's getting what he deserves.  Thats all I want to say about that, I don't want to give him anymore recognition then he's gotten today.  I want to focus on the children, and the families.  My heart grieves for them.  Today I cry for all of them.  Today I hug my daughter a little longer and am a little more patient, because I'm one of the lucky ones who still has the opportunity to do so.  Today I'm not taking her for granted.  I urge you to do the same.

new beginnings

"Just when we think we’ve figured things out, the universe throws us a curve ball. So we have to improvise, we find happiness in unexpected places, we find our way back to the things that matter the most. The universe is funny that way, sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong."


With 2012 coming rapidly to an end, I've been sitting here contemplating what the year was like.  As always, it had it's ups and downs.  I'd like to think it had more ups.  Definitely could have been worse.  I watched my baby do well in school, I turned 30 without having a mental breakdown, had some wonderful time with wonderful friends, went to my first NFL game, got offered a promotion at work, and lots of other nice things.

That got me thinking about what I want for 2013.  Not a resolution, because I never follow through with those, just something I want for myself.  I feel like I just had some kind of major epiphany.  I spend the majority of my free time bending over backwards for people.  I have this overwhelming need to be helpful at all times for some reason.  And THAT, my friends, is what I DON'T want for 2013.  I want the new year to be MY year.  I want to do things that make myself happy without worrying about upsetting someone else.  I want to give myself the chance to fall in love instead of closing myself off and not giving myself a chance.  I want to be healthy and happy with myself.  I want to try new things and step outside of my "norm".  I say this kind of stuff every year, but this year feels different.  My mind feels very clear about what I want and deserve right now.  I know what I want, and I won't settle for less.  2013 will be my year, I can feel it.

it's the little things...

Sometimes it's just the little things that make me smile.  Tonight was one of those things.  Everyone always says Saige is my mini-me.  She looks like me (especially pictures from when I was younger) and she acts a lot like I do (except with a lot more sass.  I don't have as much sass in my entire body as she does in one finger, ha).  Tonight she came into my room complaining she had a stomach ache.  The girl was just in her underwear, she hates pajamas.  Well, given it's 42 degrees right now (and weather.com says it "feels like 37 out") I informed her that she needed to put some clothes on.  While she was arguing with me a thought popped into my head.  Whenever I'm in bed at night and I'm too cold/don't have warm enough pajamas on, I get a stomach ache and feel nauseous.  No idea why that happens, but thats how I've always been since I can remember.   I told her about this and told her she just needed to try to put some clothes on for me and to see what happens.  She put on pants and a long sleeved shirt and no less than 10 minutes later she was out cold.  Guess that helped her stomach ache.  She really is a lot like me!  :-)

just once i want some normalcy, just once...

Mom's back in the hospital again.  She had a knee replacement done last friday and has been in a rehab for almost a week.  She has breathing problems to begin with, so they're supposed to be keeping a close eye on her in there.  They haven't been giving her medications on time and last night they called my sister and me at 3 am saying they had called 911 because she got up to go to the bathroom and ended up not being able to breathe.  The hospital originally thought she had a big clot in her lung, but test results showed she has severe pneumonia.  How does a place that's regularly checking her breathing not catch that?  sigh.  So, they have her on IV meds and a vent until tomorrow, but hopefully she'll be ok.  It's one thing after another.

mommy adventures...

My 6 year old is the love of my life.  She's full of spunk and energy and is incredibly smart and quick witted.  Lately however, those qualities that I love about her so much have been bringing us less than joy.  She's turned into the 6 year old going on 17.  I'm not really sure what brought on the sudden change, but parts of our days have definitely been challenging the past few weeks.  She thinks she knows everything, whines when she doesn't get what she wants and rolls her eyes at me.  The other day was the last straw.  It was the first few days of summer vacation and my nerves were shot.  I decided something had to be done.  She's going to be spending a lot of time at home this summer (only doing camp every other week) and I work at home, so in an effort for some peace and structure, I decided on creating a summer schedule for her.  I also decided to give her chores/responsibilities she needs to tend to every day, and limit her tv to an hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon (after lunch til bedtime).

In an effort to avoid creating a riot in the house I asked her to help me make the list.  We sat together and thought of things she should be doing every day and household chores she could do at her age.  She seemed excited for it, but I figured the first actual day of the new schedule would be the true test.  I woke up expecting the worst and was completely, and pleasantly, surprised by her.  She woke up and immediately asked for the dust rag (her house chore was dusting yesterday) and just did really well the rest of the day.  Day two went just as well.  She was super excited to be allowed to run the vacuum today.  I'm pleasantly surprised, relieved and proud of her for taking the change so well.  Bring on summer!

Blog Train

I'm not sure who invited me to this (whoever you are, thank you!) but it's a pretty cool site.  You just go here, put your blog address in and it will help you get more followers.  You also get points for visiting blogs through that site and whatever else...though I'm not really sure what this purpose of the points is yet, I'm still new to this.  I've found a few cool blogs through that site that I started following too.  If you want more followers you should check it out!  my blog train link