Ok, onto the blog. This weekend was fun-filled and action-packed! Saturday began with Mom/Daughter bonding day since my dad was away and some other dads of "family friends" and cousins were also away (I'm still not sure how anonymous I am keeping my blog, hence the awkwardness of that sentence).
We had a nice brunch at Café Deluxe; it felt very Sex and the City style. My mom ordered wine, that's when I knew we were trying to really have a girl power kind of day. Then we went and got manicures and pedicures, then back to Tysons for shopping, then downtown for dinner at Al Tiramisu, which Huan decided to crash (he did make the reservation, after all). If you ask him why he got to join in on an all-girls affair, he'll answer "Hello?? Have you seen my apartment?" He has a good point. The restaurant was good.. small and cozy, and they were playing Julio, which was so fitting and awesome.. who really plays Julio at their fancy Italian restaurant? It was totally for us! Anyway, I had a great big bowl of pasta, something I haven't enjoyed in a little while, and it was as fulfilling and delicious as I remember. I never said to anyone outright that I was doing Atkins, or South Beach, or whatever, because I was never strict on any of those diets by the book. I was just trying to cut out my usual 2 bowls of rice a night kind of average, and I'll tell you, it makes a difference! Now I know what I can live without and that I can indulge every once in a while if I do everything in moderation, and eat veggies and exercise and all that. (zzzzzzzzzz..........)
Sorry, now onto Sunday. I was up early again and took Auddie with me out to my friend's house in Clifton, land of large acreage lots, lots of barns, and no cell phone service. Who knew you could get so far-out by driving a few miles off the Parkway? We were going to Clifton Day (no "s") where we had chili dogs, funnel cake, cotton candy, and this crazy peppermint stick+lemon concoction, which is amazingly delicious in a very simple way. Try it yourself! Stick a peppermint into the center of a lemon and suck on it. Once it starts to dissolve you'll get this wonderfully refreshing lemon+peppermint juice coming in through the peppermint stick, which basically becomes a straw. All for a buck! The Clifton area was pretty cool. It's got this small-town feel with the small windy road through town, train tracks, lots of doggies, and all these old preserved historic landmarks/homes/buildings. I wish I had brought my camera, but I didn't, which sucks.
We went back to Becca's house after the crowd started getting to us a bit, and we kind of gave Clifton Day the "I'll show you a fair!" when we went out to hang out with the ponies in her backyard (they have 10). I found out that 1) ponies are just small horses, based on size/height, not age (who knew?), and that 2) I may very well be allergic, because I sneezed about 50 times and began rubbing my eyes like crazy, which continued for the better part of the afternoon... It was pretty cool though, and Auddie liked it; being able to pet farm animals kind of made the fair experience complete. I was telling Becca that she should come to Springfield Days sometimes, but warned her that I think it takes place in a KMart parking lot with some old rides and ferris wheels that arrive in the back of some pick-up trucks. Oh, Springfield! (I've never actually been.)
I got back home only in time for a quick shower to de-ponify (that sounds gross) myself of any allergens and to dig up my dad's old Super Bowl XXVI shirt from 1992 to put on for the Redskins game! My auntie, through a "friend," got tickets to the game, so my brother, my cousin Kam, my aunt, and I drove out to FedEx to see the Skins vs. Ravens. It wasn't as eventful as it should have been, as anyone who was watching knows. I think there were three total first downs in the first quarter, which was pathetic, and the fans were like, "This is lame!!!" (or was that me?) It picked up a bit in the second quarter, but that enthusiasm was short lived after the Ravens came out and scored two TD's within like five minutes in the 3rd quarter. My aunt spent the majority of the time with the binoculars, trying to keep track of her friend on the sidelines (hilarious!). On top of all that, it got very cold, so we were trying to pump ourselves up and get energized to stay warm, and the Redskins weren't giving us much to work with! It was a fun night, though, but it would have been nice if they actually won or at least had a few more nice plays to cheer about. That's ok, for now I'm switching focus back to the good ol' HOOS and their sweet season. I think it has to be all about the orange now, and the fact that people are actually going to football games to watch football now, instead of socializing and checking out each other's dresses (heheee!!).
Today, after the marathon weekend (poor me, I know... How much more pathetic can I get?), I got a chance to meet up with my friend for some good conversation and coffee. Now, I don't drink coffee that much, and she's one of the people who has gotten me to, because the activity we always engage in is "getting coffee," which I used to find strange, but I guess I can deal with now. I was always afraid of not being a coffee drinker because I would be left out of social situations, and my friends thought I was silly for this, but it happened to me in college! (by the friends who thought I was silly!-- I hope you know who you are!)
Here is how my memory serves me: I was trying to track down my friends one afternoon, and they were like "We went down to Starbucks on the corner, we're just hanging out now" (laughs, jokes, fun in the background).
"Oh, why didn't you call me?"
"Oh! Well, because you don't like to drink coffee..." zing! It's like smoke breaks, or even worse, like missing "water cooler conversations" because you don't drink water! Ok, so I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea. When I go into a Starbucks I get really weird because I usually have no idea what to get. It's not like I have one of those regular things. It'll be my turn in line and I'll be staring at the menu like it's a restaurant menu. Then I finally say something like, "Oh, can I get the small, whatever the smallest is, of the Pumpkin Spice... the Pumpkin latte thing." And the guy just stares at me and is like, "Yeah." And it's usually pretty good, and I actually don't mind coffee or coffee-related drinks, but I can totally do without. I don't want to be one of those "I get a headache without my coffee" types, but apparently there are many, and that's normal, but the thought of something like that scares me.
Um, back to what I was saying. Getting coffee with friend. So we were just sitting outside chatting, and I had another one of those eye-opening/make-me-feel-worthless experiences as she told me about her experiences one month into Teach For America in Philadelphia. Now, I've never seen Dangerous Minds, but what she was describing sounds like a total Gangsta's Paradise experience. I don't mean to trivialize it or make it sound like I'm joking, because seriously, some of the stories she was telling me about these students, and what it's like to get through a simple day, were amazing. Some people criticize TFA because it kind of throws somewhat underqualified people into these really intense teaching positions, but F that. There aren't qualified teachers who will fill these positions, so it's basically like, without these people they would probably just split up the kids among other classrooms where they don't belong and where teachers have even less authority and control. On top of trying to get a sense of where these kids are coming from, and trying to discipline them or get control of the troublemakers, she's ultimately trying to educate them, which is such a noble thing. I'm starting to sound cheesy, but I was really moved by this! To hear her share her experience was wildly amusing, but totally sad at the same time. I was so interested in hearing from someone who sees every day the inequity that exists in education in this country, and it's such a damn shame. I asked her rhetorically, "So what do we do?" (not me or her personally, but as a country, a people, a government). I dunno, it really got me interested/curious/thinking about education and education policy and all of that, and how sad it is for these kids and families who have to send their kids to schools that are actually documented as "potentially dangerous." While I don't have the answer, I don't think the right answer lies in holding these schools to some written standard on a sheet of paper that they should be expected to achieve on their own, without a dime and left to fend for themselves. I guess we totally take for granted the fact that kids here can go to a good school and not think twice about whether they are safe. (Especially being in Fairfax County, where it's extra cushy and great.) Anyway, guess we're back to the Save-the-World question... another toughie that I can sleep on.
Ok, now that we're all caught up... enjoy and keep tuning in.
Current Music: Sleeping In, by The Postal Service
Current Mood: contemplative (always seems to go hand-in-hand with the trying-to-save-the- world-question-posts)
Here are some pics from the Redskins game (my first attempt at posting pics within a post.. hope it works!):
This is Kam posing with a hilarious fan wearing what could be an awesome Halloween costume (if you can find humor in the situation-- if you can't read it, it says J. Lewis on his outfit)
1 comment:
WHOOEEE!! who's that fatty next to you in the last picture from the skins game? oh....oh....wait, that's me
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