The Corner of Eighteenth and Eye

Oh the kindness of strangers. After work yesterday I was trying to kill time before I had to meet up with some friends at the metro to head to an Elon Happy Hour. I had gone to the bank, picked up my dry cleaning, and wandered around CVS for about 10 minutes until I was restless, and headed of to the metro stop. I walked up to the corner of Eighteenth and Eye, and positioned myself near a flower vendor. Now the vendor started hollering at me as I was walking, “you want a rose, let me give you a rose honey”. I did my best, I don’t hear you, you must not be talking to me impression, but to no avail. He approached. The man then told me, he must give me a rose. I politely refused, and told him I had no money. But for some reason, he really wanted to give me one. He walked back to his cart, and pulled out a single red rose, “I don’t want it to go to waste”.

Oh creepy, older men. . . I don’t get why they dig me. They always have, and I guess they always will. But for today, I will stop and smell my rose, and smile about the kindness of strangers.

Ronald Regan Building

So the blizzards of 2010 had stopped snowing by Thursday, but the aftermath was making all forms of transportation a little bit dicey. I do rock a trusty Honda Civic, but it is no match to the multiple feet of snow on unpaved roads. It was touch and go for a little bit, but Zach and I did manage to get into downtown DC to the Ronald Regan Building for the Washington DC International Food and Wine Festival. The Ronald Regan Building holds the Department of Commerce, but is also an amazing venue for DC events. We spent the afternoon tasting wines from all over. I am not the biggest wine girl, so I was a little overwhelmed. I was no match for the older ladies who had their own personal wine holder necklaces. We had a great time though, and drank some great wine. Fabiolli, a winery in Northern Virginia that I had gone to for a girls day while back, had their wines there as well. I love their raspberry wine because you get to drink it with chocolate.

After the festival we hit up a few of our favorite DC spots, and ended the night where we had our first date, Matchbox. The wait was long, the bar was crowded, and the pizza was delicious. I have to say, it was just as good as the first time we went :) It was a perfect way to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Snowpacalypse

We are now officially on Day 6, Blizzard #2, of DC’s snowmagedon. The snow started falling around Friday afternoon. I was excited. I got off work early, the snow was pretty, and I had nothing but a full weekend ahead of me with Zach and Riley. I would say the Blizzard officially came on Saturday. Outside, the busy streets became a playground. There were no cars to be found, so Zach and I walked Riley all over, jumping through snow piles. I’m not going to lie, it was really fun! Metro closed all their outside stations, so we were isolated in our South Arlington cocoon. We spent the rest of the weekend eating good food (when you wait 50 minutes to pick up home-made pizza ingredients, the pizza tastes so much better), playing in the snow, and watching the Saints beat the Colts.



Monday I had my very first professional snow day. Since I have always worked with companies under 20 people, the whole “if the federal government closes for snow, we will close for snow” rule never applied to me. The only way I would have a professional snow day, is if the Metro closed. To me, I never thought I would see that happen. It turns out that if there is 8 inches of snow, outside Metro stations have to close! So with no metro, and not wanting to get into my Honda Civic, we decided to walk Target. It is about 2 miles each way, and a great way to help cabin fever. However, once Zach and I returned for Target, we received the new news that DC was expecting another one to two feet of snow on Tuesday! Seriously??



With the break in between blizzards, I managed to get to work on Tuesday for a couple of hours. The snow started falling again by nightfall, and our second blizzard really took affect this morning. I am cherishing this time to lay in my bed and catch up on episodes of Lost, but if we get anymore snow this winter, I might have some issues. It is time for snowmagedon to end!

Harris Teeter

With 12 -20 inches of snow being predicted for this weekend in the Washington DC area, I knew the grocery store was going to be bad. Thursday, I fully prepared myself for a bad shopping experience. I knew it was going to be crowded, I knew bread would be limited, and I knew I would wait awhile in line to check out. Boy, was I wrong . . . it was much, much worse!! With the impending blizzard happening to take place over Super Bowl weekend, all mayhem was going to break loose at neighborhood grocery stores.

I walked into Harris Teeter Thursday night, only to be greeted with no shopping carts. Mentally going over the items, I needed, I knew a little basket would not suffice. I then took the curb and stalked a man loading his groceries into his car for his cart. Desperate?? Just a little. Then I began my shopping. My goal was to get ingredients for Turkey Chili. I think that must have been a goal for many other people. There were only 2 green peppers left in the store and they were looking pretty busted, but I did find a lone package of 2 organic green peppers. Score. I had a similar predicament with onions, bread, and eggs. Milk however, was not a problem.

The real problem during my shopping trip was when I had to go down the aisles. The lines were so long, carts reached halfway down the aisles. So when one side is full of carts, and the other side is filled with a certain girl struggling to find a can of tomatoes in puree, and 2 cans of tomatoes paste (did you know there are like 8 kinds of canned tomatoes??), with everyone else and their brother trying to get through, certain complications arise.



Well I finally collected my groceries and took my place in line, halfway through aisle 4. I made a mental note to check my watch: 6:35. At 7:25 I exited Harris Teeter. Amazingly, still with my sanity. The one saving grace of the whole experience was, people were actually very nice. If we had all been stuck on the metro for that long - that would be a whole ‘nother story. Hope all you DC/MD/VAers survive the blizzard and the grocery stores okay!

Ben's Chili Bowl

Once it became very clear that North Carolina was not going to happen, a new, fun DC activity was planned: lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl. Ben's is a DC institution - one of the only merchants on U Street to survive the riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., famous for their Chili Half Smokes. A visit had been on my must-do DC list for a long time.



On Sunday Zach, Hi-Kat, and I met outside the restaurant. As people came out of the restaurant they stopped to take pictures in front of the famous facade. After a 30 minute wait in line (the service is slow, but worth the wait) we ordered. Ben's is covered in picture's of their famous patrons (including plenty of Obama shout-outs), so you have some visuals to entertain you. I deviated from the Chili Half Smoke, and went with the simple Chili Dog. Accompanied with cheese fries, the meal was great, even if I will be working it off for the next week. Yum.

Not North Carolina

So this past weekend, most of my family, Zach and I were supposed to head down to Raleigh, North Carolina for 2 of my favorite people in this world's engagement party (Maggie and George). However, after a 60 degree Thursday, North Carolina's temperature dropped 40 degrees on Friday, and got walloped by a winter storm Friday night and Saturday. To my utter disappointment, we had to throw in towel and not head down.

This is my sad face for missing North Carolina :(