I had a lovely few days in Washington, D.C. attending a library conference. I stayed in a sweet B&B: there was no breakfast, just a bed. In a bedroom. A really nice bedroom that would’ve completely sufficed as the best studio ever if it were 1998 and I was in San Francisco. The place was huge and had a big bay window and ginormous bed. The rest of the house was very nice, too. I didn’t see much of it as I was gallivanting much of the time.

Here’s my condensed idea of Washington, D.C., in bullet point format + 1 photo:

D.C. has its share of the weird

• people were very nice, smiled when you passed them on the street, and were altogether charming
• some of the monuments (okay, 1, it rhymes with “stinkin’”) make me cry
• it isn’t a great place to be a vegetarian, but if you are and you love Thai and Indian food you will be O.K.
• D.C. Metro is the fastest, most on-time, cleanest, most thorough and CHEAPEST subway system ever and I loved every minute riding it – I’d jump on and off trains just to see what was above ground, it was so easy to get back on and not get stranded
• it’s super fun to ride a bus across state lines – I was in three different states/districts throughout any given day – fun!
• Georgetown was expensive and everyone was rude – it was like a little mean island in an otherwise sparkly ocean; I visited a lot of neighborhoods and that one was just the worst. I had a total Pretty Woman moment when some snotty lady in an not-even-that-nice boutique asked me if I “really wanted” to be looking through the $18 Italian soaps. Bitchyface. And yes, I did.
• you pretty much never forget you’re in the nation’s capital because of the constant presence of a) tourists and school groups, b) people in assorted uniforms, and c) ads in subways with big military guns and planes on them

The conference was OK – I learned a lot of interesting new data and formed some new ideas, but overall I found it kind of a lackluster experience. It was super clique-y and it wasn’t even really a clique I wanted to be a member of: librarians who kept talking about the technology but rarely naming a use for the technology. 3892009393 conference retweets made my head spin: repeating something someone else said that someone else said that someone else said? Not interesting to me. Theorizing about what you could maybe do if you had X, Y, & Z? Not interesting to me. Real life examples of what you’ve done and how you did it? Awesome, but those were few and far between. I walked away feeling lucky to be surrounded by fresh, outward-thinking, service-obsessed, and impassioned librarians on all sides at my job – I don’t necessarily need to go to a conference to be inspired or feel a sense of community.

I got from my B&B to Sky’s office by way of subway->bus->plane->plane->lightrail. About 15 minutes after I arrived in Seattle proper, we were picked up by our awesome real estate agent Ms. K. She whisked us away to a handful of selected houses. We fell in like with one of them and discussed it at length. Then we went home, ate, and I crashed headfirst on the couch. I woke up the next morning and drove 7 hours to a ladies’ getaway in Oregon. It was a lovely little weekend with my momma, my sister, my two aunts and my gram. It was fantastic and funny and comforting and all of the things that hanging with your family ladies should be.

I drove home on Sunday afternoon, just in time to meet Sky, our other awesome realtor Ms. R, Sky’s mom, and our friend Lotus, the former contractor. We were looking at the “like” house again and kind of fell in love. The neighbors were great, the view was better than we remembered, and we saw some wood underneath the ugly carpet. Lotus knocked on walls and kicked at some wood and declared it probably okay, so we went ahead with an offer. We offered what we could afford (minus some $ to fix this lady house up) and damned if they didn’t accept our offer! Crazypants. Now we’re waiting on the inspection and hoping for a May closing. This thing happened so quickly we’re still pinching ourselves, but in a very blissed out and satisfied way.

We’ve started a little tumbleblog to keep the email traffic down (no need now to send a photo every time I spot a cute toilet). You can join us in our house-musing at A House Named Meg. Yeah, we named the not-even-ours-yet house after Meg White (wait until you see it – you’ll understand why). And yeah, we then started a blog based off of a Johnny Cash song. What can I say?

I didn’t get the sunshiney Valhalla I’d expected since it rained 90% of the time I was there, but that was fine. I caught some sunshine my first morning there as we drank boozy coffee on the huge porch. When it did rain, it was often in big, gusty sheets; watching the rain pound the water outside the window was fun, but seeing the poor birdies trying to fly against the wind wasn’t so great. Poor seagulls.

We had some excellent meals, including a lunch at the new branch of Burma Superstar which was just blocks from Jaime’s place! We also had some heavenly burritos and some ridiculously delicious french macaroons.

We watched two scary movies: Orphan and Paranormal Activity. We watched Orphan because it featured our mutual movie boyfriend Peter Sarsgaard. The plot to this one was fun and creative and I enjoyed that they took the time to build up a good story with interesting characters. Paranormal Activity wasn’t half as scary as I’d set it up to be, but it did give me the willies in a few spots. We also watched Up in the Air. I found it kinda depressing, but there were some interesting moments.

The last night I was there we stopped by the house of a friend of Jaime’s: we had some lovely wine (okay a lot of lovely wine) and hung out with the couple and their 9-year-old son who RULED. So often kids are left at home when parents go to visit or put down to sleep in a bedroom when company is over, but this family had their son hanging out with us for most of the evening. It was so fun – we played Spongebob SORRY! and drew pictures and giggled and played hide and seek. Seeing a well adjusted kid enjoying time with his parents yet letting them be adults and have conversations was pretty awesome.

We had plans to visit San Francisco and maybe drop in on some friends, but Monday morning we both woke with awful hangovers. I guess we aren’t 23 anymore. The storm was raging outside so we ordered pizza delivery and sat around chatting. We never left the 94501 zip code and I’m not one bit sorry. It felt like old times when we both lived in the city – back then we didn’t spend our time jetting from place to place trying to mark things off of a list. We just talked. Slept in. Read books together.

I came home, feeling a bit lonely but happy to see Sky. Then I was in Jury Duty for 2 days and got the worst haircut of my life. Both those things will have to wait for another post…

I had the day off yesterday due to working the weekend. I do love a Tuesday off. I can sleep in all by my lonesome, be leisurely in my coffee making, putz around in my jammies. I can do all of this with Sky home, of course, but there’s a deliciousness about doing it alone while EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD IS AT WORK!

After I’d taken full advantage of the empty apartmentness, I decided I needed more embroidery supplies. Half the fun of a hobby is the supplies, right? The stuff. The gear. The secret stash of thread I can keep on my person for any embroidery emergencies. Thus I ventured to the Pacific Fabrics Outlet in SODO (SOuth of DOwntown, because we want to be like a big, grownup city with snipped up names for neighborhoods). This place was amazing. I wandered in there for hours – they had things I didn’t know existed, like boobie inserts for homemade bathing suits, and weird little baby heads (for dollmaking) (I think). They had tons of strange, bright, and furry fabrics – if you ever want to make a gorilla suit or something out of the ordninary, I highly suggest this retail establishment. I half hoped and expected a group of “Project Runway” imitators to come crashing through the door with just 15 minutes to find everything they needed to recreate a costume from a Busby Berkeley set. Didn’t happen.

After I had my fill of textiles, I drove off in search of the elusive Big John’s PFI. It actually wasn’t elusive at all – I just made sure to keep my eyes peeled for the green, white and red canopy. That place was amazing. It had a whole WALL of cheese and tons and tons of spices and pastas and beans and other exciting things in bulk. I found tons of weird things I missed from living in London. I also found delicious Italian pastries and french candies. Delicious. It’s billed as a Mediterranean grocery but it’s got oodles of stuff from everywhere. The other people in the shop were either chefs in their little outfits or people speaking Greek. All of the people that worked there were kind of crazy about food which I loved because I am kind of crazy about food. A quote from their website says it all:

“Dodoni Goat Feta is in. It’s peppery, it’s crumbly and absolutely delicious. Get in here. Get you some.”

After all of the excitement I needed some quiet time so I went by our old place: it’s no longer a house, it’s now a coffee shop. I didn’t have any cash with me so I asked if I could just peek around a bit. The owner (who I know) wasn’t there, and the baristo dude totally thought I was a freak who was making up a story about having lived there in order to peer into the cabinets. But that’s cool. It was decorated in a cute way. It’s a very surreal experience, seeing strangers sitting in your house, with all of the wall colors different and things moved about.

I returned to my new cozy place and cuddled with the cats, then put all of my snazzy new thread on little cardboard cards to keep it organized. Sky came home and we had a tasty dinner and quietly crafted the night away. Tada.

That gotten out of the way, ONWARD (or backward) to Chicago!

Sometime in my life I heard the phrase “You put the chicken in the car and the car won’t go – that’s how you say ‘Chicago’!” I repeated this to anyone who would listen in the weeks leading up to our trip. I also said it a lot in Chicago. It never got old (to me).

1/2 of MONDAY & ALL OF TUESDAY
We left Seattle after work on Monday evening — had a nice dinner and then hopped on the new lightrail that took us most of the way to the airport. We got to the airport around 10:30 and waltzed through the shortest security line, ever. We napped a bit on the 3 hour flight to St. Paul, Minnesota, then had questionable vegan carrot muffins once we landed. A couple of minutes later we boarded a second plane and landed in Chicago around 8:30am. It was fun sitting on the el, all bleary eyed and sleepless while watching commuters drinking their coffee and reading their clever little daily paper. I loved watching the spindly little backporches speed by our windows. I haven’t been to Chicago since I was very, very small – I was suprised by how European much of it appeared.

Harold Washington Library

We got caught in a big super rainstorm! Then we saw the bean (okay, okay, “Cloud Gate“). And the fountain. We sought refuge in the John Hancock building. We had drinks on the 17th floor. It was very surreal because we were socked in by clouds most of the time. Your body knew you were really high up (the building sways), but you couldn’t see anything. For about 5 minutes, right toward the end of my boozy hot chocolate, we could see all of Lakeshore Drive spread out before us. Then it went away again.

We wandered the streets looking for good food, and finally asked a nice looking tattooed girl where to get some good pizza. She pointed us around the corner to a cozy place that was packed to the gills. We were happy to be inside and warm and reading menus. We got the butter crust (tattooed girl insisted on it). Delicious. We sloshed back to our hotel and prompty crashed.

WEDNESDAY

Crown Hall

Jen at the museum

On our way back to the hotel to grab our stuff, we happened upon Christkindlemarket: a crazy German marketplace in the middle of Daley plaza. We went to see the Picasso, we stayed to eat potato pancakes and gingerbread. And how. We also snuck past the guards of the Rookery building to see the second floor. Okay, I didn’t. Sky did. I hate breaking rules like that. Sky said it was amazing.

Once we were all full of art we met up with Jimmy and Diane (Sky’s dad and stepmom) and had some very tasty Indian food. We enjoyed a chilly walk back to our abode: an empty, very shiny modern house on Lakeshore Drive. Our hosts had just moved to a new apartment and their house was for sale, so the four of us had the place all to ourselves. Sleeping in an immense empty house is very surreal.

THURSDAY (THANKSGIVING)

I am not sure what Sky is doing here

FRIDAY
Jimmy, Sky, and Sky’s half-brother Tyler walked over the zoo to visit some animals. We saw some roaring lions (you could hear them throughout the zoo) and a depressed polar bear. It was fun to hang out with the brothers and Jimmy. Being in an uncrowded zoo on a cold day was very charming.

We had leftovers for lunch (Thai sweet potatoes!) and then headed to meet the rest of the family at the Art Institute. I was pleased to see the Thorne Miniature Rooms (68 miniature rooms and settings) – I remember visiting those rooms with my grandmother when I was little. We also took in the Victorian Ladies Collage exhibit. Also loved that day: Phillip Gustons all packed in a room, and a fascinating little painting by Georg Baselitz (never heard of him before, but I liked that painting an awful lot). I also grabbed a 2 second peek at a great de Kooning I’d never seen, as we dashed for the exit. We had drinks with Sky’s cousin Rachel who had just started her own nonprofit when I first met her 3 years ago. We caught up and had dreamy talks about San Francisco. Next was dinner at a cozy American restaurant (4 kinds of macaroni and cheese!) where I sat with a different group of the family than at Thanksgiving. Sky’s uncle Dan regaled me with stories of celebrities and general LA weirdness (he’s a dentist to the STARS, dear) and I had a good time talking to aunt Deb about art and our life here in Seattle. How much did I luck out with Sky? Not only is he all matchy-perfect for me, but his family is also incredibly interesting and neat. All of ‘em.

SATURDAY

Sleepy Absinthe stupor

After a quick bite of leftovers, it was back to the el to get to the airport to get on the plane to get on the lightrail to get oh wait, we wimped out and took a cab home. To get home to warm cats and warm bed. The End.

My first embroidery, Sublime Stitching design

I love fine days with my gentleman. I’m still caught of guard sometimes with how much fun we have together. I keep thinking that one day we’ll wake up and be sick of each other, but it hasn’t happened yet, and I kind of think it might not ever happen that way. Which is awesome. And also a little heavy, in a good way.

I haven’t gotten photos off of my own camera yet, so here’s a lovely photo someone else took of Kalaloch. My sister and I visited this weekend for a short sisterly getaway. We often camped there as kids.

We didn’t realize it was so close to TWILIGHT OMG FORKS, WASHINGTON! This made for some fun times at the gift shop and grocery store. Weirdest Twilight themed thing: sandwiches at the deli, named the Edward, Jacob and Bella. I think Edward was roast beef but I can’t remember what the other two were.

Friday after work we were boxing and taping and unscrewing and dismantling. Kathy came by and brought us some food and we took a wee break and then ran around posting “Yard Sale” signs everywhere. Then we collapsed and woke up really, really early Saturday and set up the yard sale. We were still setting up @ 9am and some very nice friends helped us put things out. The sale was amazing good – all of our furniture sold and we made a lot more than we had projected. As soon as 4pm hit we went back to packing and then collapsed again, and woke up early again.

Sunday we got our storage unit (“No, we are not keeping illegal things in the storage unit”) and got ready for the movers. Movers are magical. The only time I hired movers before was once in SF when I had to move all by myself because everyone I knew was away on different trips. I used Delancy Street movers and they were awesome. It was just a studio, though, so it wasn’t as impressive as yesterday. Yesterday two dudes showed up with a big truck and MOVED ALL OF OUR STUFF. It was a beautiful thing. Sky and I stood by so chuffed we could hardly stand it. The work they did in 2 hours would have taken the two of us 5 hours, plus it would have been really, really painful. Sky has a really tweaked back and we were both already popping Ibuprofen from moving things for the yard sale and the handful of trips we’d done in the Jeep and truck with smaller loads.

We gave our movers a nice tip and a box of donuts, and after they left we just sat down and absorbed the new place. It felt so good. Words cannot describe, so I won’t really attempt it. I will say that we made a lot of jokes along the lines of “What city do we live in, again?” which is funny when someone is sitting in a chair (in front of a window) and has the Space Needle coming out of her head and an exit sign for “Seattle” coming out of her armpit.

We brought over the contents of our fridge (including a saurkraut jar that was leaking as we went through the apartment – woops) and the kitties and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around with big grins on our faces. The apartment with our furniture in it looks so grown up that we felt like litte kid imposters.

Late last night after Indian takeout, a bath, and some lying around on the rug, we went to sleep in our new place. The cats were flipping out and meowing and jumping all night, and the traffic was LOUD, but I think we’ll all get used to it soon.

I can’t wait to get the rest of the Goodwill stuff packed away in the old place and to sweep those floors and hand over our keys. That’s when I’ll truly feel moved.

Step 1: Mix them up

Step 2: Cook them well

Step 3: Enjoy, and if you name is Sky, add half pound of butter

More photos can be found @ Mount Rainier: August 2009 on flickr

She meant this kind of Sassy

I asked the proprietress to point me in the direction of the skirts, and she did a great exaggerated eye roll. “You were looking for skirts, AM I RIGHT?” she asked. I nodded. She got down from her ladder and put her hands on her hips and delivered a speech that I’m sure has been practiced numerous times in front of a mirror in the bathroom:

“You may be too young to know this missy, but “skirts” is a term people used to use for WOMEN. So this is a store that turns that UPSIDE DOWN! We only sell things made by girls FOR GIRLS. Everything in this store is F-U-N, Functional, and FAB-U-LOUS!”

I knew she wanted a smile, in fact she probably needed one, but the fumes from a nearby poodle shaped perfume bottle-slash-princess wand were making my nose twitch angrily. I knew what “skirts” meant and I didn’t like being called a girl, not like that. My inner feminist was whipping about in all directions, and I feel bad about it now, but I just nodded and walked quickly from the store. I should have maybe given her some Amen Sister type validation, but really all I wanted was a sale rack of polka dotted skirts. Plus she was way freaky with her speech patterns, which I’ve tried faithfully to emulate.

I almost bought Lou Whittaker: Memoirs of a Mountain Guide in a gift shop, except it was $19, and I was feeling cheap. Just look at that cover! He's flying between big chunks of ice and he looks like he's just sitting in a chair about to enjoy a gin and tonic or something. Amazing.

Everything was awesome, except for the 3rd degree burn I got from some flying hot marshmallow. I don’t know what possessed me to make s’mores considering I don’t like them all that much, but something took hold of me when I saw the S’mores Fixins display in the grocery store and we found ourselves with a package of six Hershey bars, generic graham crackers, and some squished looking marshmallows stuffed in a bag. One of my marshmallows caught on fire and as I was blowing on it it (I didn’t think Stop, Drop, and Roll was a good rule for a consumable) a big chunk flew onto my wrist and stuck there. It hurt, but not too terribly much, so I stuck a band aid on the burn and went to sleep. I woke up the next morning feeling like my hand was going to fall off. Turns out I burned through a few layers of skin. Or that marshmallow did.

Marshmallow Menace