Sunday brunch-day!

If you spur-of-the-moment invite me to brunch on a Sunday, odds are pretty high that I'm going to say yes, even if I already put away a rather large bowl of cherry-vanilla oatmeal. I adore the concept of brunch. It opens up the traditionally accepted window of "breakfast food" time to cover all of the AM hours, definitely early PM, and can stretch even later, all depending on what time you decide to roll out of bed, really. I love breakfast. I LOVE breakfast. I ♥ breakfast SO MUCH.

I ♥ it that much more when combined with gorgeous spring weather, good conversation with a new friend, and subsequent exploration of Georgetown in all of its historic prettiness. Dana and I met at Leopold's, a modern-ish, Euro-chic restaurant in Georgetown with some pretty fantastic pastries. I kicked things off with a pain au chocolat, which took me right back to memories of Parisian breakfasts at "our" bakery across the street from our accommodations where we fell into a coma-like sleep every night from sheer exhaustion. Every day should start with flaky pastry concealing a chocolate treat. Please see expression of joy and Parisian "ooh la la!" to your right. Start with pain au chocolat, add mimosa and Manchego-carmelized onion-olive tart, subtract unnecessary greenery as side dish/garnish, and you end up with a pretty pleased me. Plus they had these super cool flower barstools that were nice and cushy. Have I mentioned yet that the weather was absolutely gorgeous?

Unfortunately, Dana's true motive for getting me out and about really had to do with something far less polite than pastries and civilized conversation. She's being initiated into the hallowed sisterhood of bridesmaids (rookie!) and has been designated the official bachelorette party planner. I, being from the South where people tend to marry just a tad bit earlier than native New Yorkers, am well-versed in this particular realm of planning, and Dana had requested my expertise. So after our pleasant brunch among sophisticated Georgetowners, we soon found ourselves surrounded by a decidedly different crowd at Pleasure Palace, discreetly tucked away at the end of a row of shops on Wisconsin. That's right, these are the lengths I'll go to for friendship. After I made some tacky comment about spending the Lord's day in a sex shop, we escaped with minimal party supplies and determined that she would do a little better finishing up her shopping online. Oh, the power of the interwebs.

After escaping from the sex shop, we walked our way down P Street towards Dupont Circle to take in the general cuteness and oldness of Georgetown. I mean, these places are ridiculous and gorgeous and I want to be a gazillionaire and live there. How much more Americana do you get than red brick and navy shutters? Plus on the roof they have cool little scary birdie sculpture things - I'm assuming these are to scare away the real birdies and keep them from pooing all over the historical beautifulness. Even the 7-11 in Georgetown is cute.

We parted ways at the Dupont metro stop, and I wandered into the circle and took a seat on a bench to watch the world go by. Quite a collection of people, really. I witnessed some apparent cheerleading practice that I think was intended to be a fitness class, and the chess scene at Dupont Circle is really pretty fascinating. My chess skills need some serious work before I'll consider taking on these guys. Sat on a bench, read my book, and enjoyed the sunlight...only because I had the foresight to douse myself in SPF 55 before leaving home. Otherwise I would have immediately sought out the first open space under the saving shade of a tree. Yes, I am just that pale. What a great afternoon.

All of the above was slightly marred by the fact that I was suffering from the beginnings of what turned out to be a fairly nasty cold, but I fought through the stuffy and the sore to enjoy the spring weather. I'm concerned that it could turn into a sweltering summer very quickly. You know, as soon as it's done freezing.