Ready to run...well...not quite

A few months ago, by virtue of a lucky lottery pick, I somehow managed to sign myself up for a physical endeavor - the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run on April 11.  April 11, you say?  Why, wasn't that last Sunday?  Why haven't we been hearing about all of this training and running and excitement about ten whole miles?

Well, I started out strong.  I invested in some new Brooks running shoes and signed up for the online beginner training program.  I bought new workout clothes (you look forward to working out more when you have a cute outfit, right?) and loaded up the iPod with motivational tunes.  Groundwork laid.  Let Operation Erin Might Actually Do This Running Thing commence.

I even dropped my workout schedule into Google Calendars and shared it with my friend Darcy so we could hold each other accountable for actually getting off our bums and doing something.  She's doing crazy things like P90X and serious classes that really make your muscles scream, so I was sure hoping I could keep up with my gradually-increasing-in-intensity walking/jogging/running routine.

And I did, I really did!  For a while, anyway...and then I was "too tired" and "too busy" and every other excuse in the book, and before I knew it I'd run out of time to really prepare myself.  And yes, I would have done the ten miles anyway, just to punish myself if for no other reason...save for this:

All runners must complete the course in less than 2 hours and 20 minutes. Runners not maintaining a 14-minute-per-mile pace at 5 miles will have to leave the course. If you fall behind 14-minute-per-mile pace during the second half of the race you will be required to board our sweep vehicle.

Board the sweep vehicle, known in my mind as the Van of Shame?  No thank you!  I mean, I'd like to think I could manage 14 minute miles, but why chance the Van of Shame?  For sanity's sake...drop down to the 5k.  Fill out the form, the switch is made, no problem.  I can certainly manage a 5k.

Saturday I made my way over to the National Building Museum and was pleasantly surprised at the ease of check-in and bib pick-up.  I was expecting crazy lines, but everything actually ran very efficiently.  Props to the volunteers.  I pulled together my clothes for Sunday, called it an early night on Saturday, and set my alarm for the semi-unpleasant hour of 6:00 AM.

Pulling together everything the night before doesn't do you much good when you stumble out of bed and hit "dismiss" rather than "snooze" on the alarm and crawl back into bed for ten more precious minutes of sleep.  Ten minutes turned into three and a half hours, and I slept through the race.  Epic fitness fail.  And that's as far as bib #18285 made it.

Blossom-tastic Easter weekend goodness

I know a lot of people who head home for Easter weekend, in the midst of tax craziness and all, because it's important to be with family and celebrate these holidays.  I wasn't in the financial frame of mind to journey halfway across the country for a quick weekend (especially since my parents will be here in THREE WEEKS!!  Watch out, DC, the Bryans are coming to town!), so instead...a wonderful friend from NYC came in for the weekend, and I had Easter dinner with my surrogate DC family (we had ribs...yes, my surrogate DC family is most definitely from Texas...amen).  All in all, really not a bad way to go, especially with the impeccable spring weather Mother Nature bestowed upon the Mid-Atlantic region.

As much as I love Bolt Bus for its reasonable prices and mostly reasonable service, sometimes...sometimes traffic just happens on the Friday of a holiday weekend.  And buses leave NYC twenty minutes late and are then hit by a car on the congested highways, resulting in a little "let's pull over and file the accident report" time.  Poor Judy.  But you know what?  She finally made it!!  We celebrated her arrival and the generally gorgeous weather by heading down the street to a patio and immediately ordering both red wine and chocolate cake (commonly known remedies to travel weariness). 

Saturday morning dawned a little cloudy, so we waited it out with a combination of (1) sleeping in, which you can never have too much of, (2) cinnamon rolls, courtesy of the Pillsbury Dough Boy and entirely delicious, and (3) copious amounts of coffee (the last of my coffee of the month coffee!  I'm a little saddened by this) before heading a couple of blocks over to the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum for some culture and air conditioning.  Have I mentioned how much I love that I live just a few blocks from this place?  I think I have.  It's one of my favorite places in the city.  The Lincoln inaugural exhibit has now been replaced by something slightly less fascinating, which is a little disappointing, but they have so many interesting exhibits and the fantastic courtyard.  Love it.  We worked our way through the Presidential portraits...

...marveled at natural wonders...

The Grand Canyon is THIS BIG!!

...and also made it over to the modern and contemporary exhibits, which included some bright and enlightening Texas time.

 

After a stop at Legal Sea Foods for lunch and a D-list (or possibly lower - what's below D-list?) celebrity sighting in the form of Tennille, former Hell's Kitchen contestant now heading the kitchen at that particular location of a chain seafood restaurant, we started our cherry blossom journey.  The Tidal Basin is the place to be with cherry blossoms in every direction as far as the eye can see, and while it was bound to be mobbed with hordes of people, we knew we wanted to brave it for the photo ops.

We managed to survive the crazy-busy Metro ride to the Smithsonian stop...and proceeded to enjoy the beauty.  Yes, there's a part of me that knows I've done this before, several times, and fought the crowds and agonized over the massive amounts of people and general craziness of the entire event...but it really is beautiful.  Judy and I had a fantastic time taking in the fluffy blossoms and finding the perfect location for a blossom glamour shots.

After working our way through Blossom Central and walking walking walking, we slowly made our way back home (with a minor stop at H&M along the way, of course) and promptly proceeded to fall asleep upon reaching the living room.  All of that walking walking walking is exhausting!  Not wanting to get all exciting again, we ordered a pizza from Matchbox and headed out to pick it up.  And proceeded to take in one of the better fireworks shows I've seen as we paused at the corner of 6th and H to take in the fireworks show, apparently associated with the Cherry Blossom Festival, that I had no idea was happening.  So pretty!  Couch + pizza + wine + An Education + good conversation with a good friend = a pretty great laid-back Saturday night.

Happy Easter!  Sunday we took part in one of my favorite Easter traditions of late...EATING.  Also respectably known as Easter brunch.  We headed over to Georgetown for a tasty brunch at Clyde's and did a little shopping and a little partaking of frozen yogurt in a lovely park before heading over to the massive parking lot at 10th & H to drop off one NYCer for her bus back home.  Even though I'd rather she stay awhile.

Boats, blossoms, and banners

Let's go a little more upbeat than the last post, shall we?  Something along the lines of actual D.C. adventures and good times with friends?  Yes, let's do that.

Last Thursday I took a slightly extended lunch break for two of my favorite things - in no particular order, (1) a Five Guys cheeseburger, AND (2) meeting an out-of-town friend at the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro stop after his or her journey from a train or plane to escort said friend to my home for a dropping off of the stuff.  One Jason of the New York variety came into town for a couple of job interviews, some general good times, and the comfort of my apartment's sofa bed.  Happy to oblige.

Highlights! Yes, of course the first highlight I would mention involves food. Thursday night dinner involved a boat. A beautiful wooden boat full of sushi. We made the incredibly short walk over to Momiji for a little Sapporo, a little sake, and a whole lotta...well...rice and fish and such. Don't tell me you wouldn't be swayed by something called the Sushi Love Boat (really, disregard the "love" part - completely unnecessary - we're talking BOAT of sushi here), offering up 12 pieces of nigiri, three rolls (dragon, California, and tuna), and two spicy tuna hand rolls. And it literally comes to the table in a giant wooden boat. There's something to be said for the art of presentation. I didn't actually take a picture (shocking!!), but it looked kinda like this and was extremely awesome:

Friday was pretty work-ish for both of us - long day of interviews and general job stress for Jason, medical ick and work blah for me - and at the end of that long and rainy day, all I really wanted to do was chill and sit on the couch. So we did. Delivery of Thai food deliciousness, a little NCAA tourney action, some mind-bending from the Coen brothers, and done for the day. Thank goodness.
Saturday, though...sweet, blessed Saturday dawned bright and beautiful, and we took full advantage of it. A little time walking through the National Gallery Sculpture Garden, remembering our Parisian adventures...

...followed by a little time in the Natural History Museum, investigating the mysteries of Darwin and the depths of the ocean, where scary and enormous giant squid roam...

We also made our way over to the American History Museum, where it became pretty clear that tourist season (or maybe just spring break) is in full swing - line stretching out the door.  Here we go!

That didn't deter us from spending some quality time with the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner, sexy George Washington carved out of marble, Kermit the Frog, Julia Child's kitchen, sparkly First Lady dresses, and C-3PO.  Quite a cast of characters, really.  Oh, and W!  This one's for you, Dad, and no, I was not shunned by any liberals as we snapped the picture.

After getting in the requisite museum visits, we took to the outdoors to truly enjoy the beautiful spring day...and the cherry blossoms!  Yup, it's that time of year again, so we wound our way down to the Tidal Basin and around the Washington Monument, taking in the fluffy white blossoms and the sky dotted with colorful kites courtesy of the Smithsonian Kite Festival.  After fortifying ourselves with crab cakes from Old Ebbitt Grill and some quality Borders wandering and purchases, it was time to head back home - a few blocks for me and a few hours on a train for Jason.  Spring has definitely sprung!

Silly signs

Just a few more reasons why I always try to have my camera with me. Silly signs amuse me.

Likely intended to provide some awareness of a school/playground in the area, but I'm going to take it to mean "beware of teeter-totter AND children with floating heads."


I don't recall learning it quite that way in school. Special earbones? I wasn't aware that was a distinguishing feature of mammals. Merriam-Webster makes no mention of special earbones. Every other resource does, though. I think I glossed over this in my years of science education. Good thing the Museum of Natural History is here to set me straight.


You know some moron, mesmerized by the hypnotic beauty of the cherry blossoms, smacked his head into a branch and possibly (1) developed a small bump and accompanying headache and/or (2) fell into the Tidal Basin. Both possibilities now warrant the city posting signs for something that is glaringly obvious to anyone with the gift of sight. Oh, that reminds me - please exercise caution with hot beverages.



Neat and tidy liberal spray-painting defacing city property. Theoretically put in place before last November's election.



The best part is "signs paid for by Georgetown University" at the very bottom. Hush up, now, all you crazy college kids, and please stop disturbing your very wealthy neighbors.

On a side note, tomorrow I welcome a Texas visitor in the form of Jenny P, fresh off a week of imparting her knowledge on impressionable young minds at Pdub's national tax training. SO excited that she'll be here for the weekend, and I can't wait to see her!!

Peak bloom = peak crazy

Last weekend when I checked out the cherry blossom madness, I thought it was a little crazy, a little busy. Crowds milling about, moving along at the pace of the person in front of you, angling for some pretty water/blossom shots.

Round #2 this weekend with Dana...truly crazy. Parade + street festival + gorgeous weather (with some West Texas-like wind, though - dang, it was breezy!) = massive, massive crowds descending on Pennsylvania Avenue and the Tidal Basin area. In the spirit of festivals and culinary adventures, we really would have liked to hang out in the Japanese beer garden and enjoy some kind of rice-laden cuisine, but these lines were absurd.

We eventually muscled our way over to the waterfront and did what we could to snag some good pictures. Of course, everywhere you turn it's just absolutely beautiful, so snapping pictures really isn't a problem unless you're trying to get a good artsy shot of the Jefferson Memorial.

For what it's worth, the blossoms seemed a little more white this weekend and a little less pink. That's about as botanical-analytical I'm going to get for you. Here's a few more for the road:

Not usually a huge fan of pink...

...but I'll make an exception for the cherry blossoms. My pictures really don't do justice to the blooms - walking around the Tidal Basin (with hordes and hordes of tourists, of course, which pulls some of the Zen out of the experience...but also adds an air of festivity...), surrounded by the shades of pink and white in every direction...just beautiful. Next weekend is actually projected to be "peak bloom" time, but given yesterday's nasty, rainy, blah weather, I thought I should take advantage of today's sunshine and mild temperatures and go enjoy nature. Oh, weather powers that be, please let it stay spring!