Cabin Fevah!

Is this too much of a good thing? Today will make the fourth day working at home, plus getting out early on Friday, plus not being able to leave the house for much this weekend, means I've spent almost an entire week just in my house.

Moral of the story...I am looking for in home entertainment. Suggestions welcome.

Why did I pass three patches of yellow snow on my way to Dupont Circle?

So much snow! I woke up Saturday morning thinking I was back in the UP of Michigan. This made for an amazing weekend. The city was so incredibly festive. Tons of people were out and about enjoying the snow. It was the friendliest I have ever seen DC. All of the streets were basically sidewalks.

 

The storm did a lot of damage, however. In addition to taking out many, many trees, a couple roofs collapsed.

Someone organized a DC-wide snowball fight at Dupont Circle. I took part. Over 5,500 people RSVP'ed for the event. Spicy.

 

I was joined in this endeavor by my good friends Meghan and Jessica, who came decked out in a halo.

  

Since she had the halo, Jessica had to make a snow angel.

  

People got so silly. One of my personal fav's, the above car was aptly named "Mr. T".

  

  

We aren't kidding when we say that people ravage the grocery stores at any hint of a storm. After the snowball fight we decided we needed some "essentials". But after seeing this when we walked into the grocery store, we weren't sure we'd find them.

  

But in the end we were successful, and came away with frozen pizza, chips, toilet paper and wine. The essentials.

  

On Sunday Jessica and I took in some more of the storm, and did some sledding. We started out on a gentle slope and some cardboard.

  

This didn't get us far, however, and we ended up going down a long flight of snowed-over stairs in Meridian Park. Much spicier.

Snowpocalypse

 In typical east coast fashion, DC is in an absolute panic about the impending snow storm. Widely dubbed "snowpocalypse", my favorite quote has come from channel 4 news, which referred to the storm as "Snowtorious B.I.G." "SNOMG" is a close second.

The grocery store freak out is by now a common and expected reaction to any amount of snow in this city. What I did not expect, however, was the crush of people at the public library. I guess my thought to stock up on books before getting shut inside for a few days was not unique. This isn't the greatest photo, and I'm not sure if you can tell just how long the line is, but I guarantee the library has never seen so many people at once.

 

Book update: I just finished reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers and will be beginning "The Magician's Nephew" from the Chronicles of Narnia.

More Winter

So we got some more snow. We got several inches last night, but by this morning when I took the picture it was already staring to melt. This is my apartment, first house on the right.

This is my street.

Bonne Année

New Year's in Paris with the fam was lovely. We began the evening with almost all of France on the Champs-Élysées. Luckily, we avoided the police pat down as we exited the metro, sneaking our contraband through. We quickly journeyed near Pont Alexander III on the Seine, to get a better view of the Eiffel Tower. Although we were quite disappointed there weren't exciting fireworks, the tower did get all sparkly for the big moment.

Two things for next year:

1. Nick and I created a new tradition to celebrate a new year: spill on someone. I encourage everyone to adopt this tradition, but only on New Year's Eve. Be sure to tell me how it goes. 
2. Nick and I also have a contest - who can learn to do the best moonwalk by 01/01/11. We will be having juried sessions throughout the year to mark our progress. Please let me know if you are interested/willing to serve on a panel. You will have to prove you are qualified to competently judge a moonwalk.
   

Winter, DC Style

So....I don't have any first hand pictures of the crazy winter weather here in DC. But I feel like this gives a pretty accurate picture of how the city was affected. This took place three blocks from my home:



Happy holidays.

Puerto Rico - Day 2-Day 4

I started my Puerto Rico blog quite optimistically - labeling Day 1 as if I would need to note each day of posting because there would be so many. In my head I had grand ideas of jealousy-inspiring pictures of beaches and tropical scenes. Instead, this was the most frequent view I had for a majority of the trip:



Puerto Rico is not a big island. I can say this confidently, because I have seen all of it. From the window of this van, of which I spent at least half of my trip in. A big part of our our visit was spent visiting the damaged areas and seeing first hand what the survivors experienced.

Overall, Puerto Rico was absolutely lovely. The people were more hospitable and generous than anywhere I've visited. However, I had very little opportunity to explore and enjoy the island (outside of the van) because we worked long hours and it was very intense. We were all completely exhausted by the end of the day. It was interesting, yes; insightful, yes; but incredibly tiring as well.

I definitely left with the feeling I need to return again.