replaced by every day

According to the folks at Capital Weather Gang (which, by the way, a strangely addictive newsblog; I've never been one to care about weather, but I follow these guys on Twitter and everything), this snowstorm ranked as the fourth biggest in DC recorded history. Around here I think we got about 20 inches of snow, falling steadily all through last night and all day today until about 5pm. I spent most of the earlier part of today indoors, cleaning and doing laundry. In between we watched the snow come down outside our balcony window, occasionally stepping out on the balcony to take a picture or two.

Around 4:30 or so, though, I decided I ought to venture outside at least once. Alan, who had already gone out in the morning to check if the grocery store was open (it was not), obligingly suited up with me and said he'd come along. He suggested we make the walk down to and back up along the waterfront, a circle of several blocks. As we walked along we passed other people from our neighborhood out with their dogs, or, like us, just enjoying and marveling at the snow. Alan ran around throwing snowballs into the trees, causing the snow hanging on the tree branches to come showering down. I lagged behind, taking pictures. Walking was a new experience: every step was deliberate, a balancing act as the snow shifted and compressed underneath our feet (even on paths already blazed by other walkers). Everything just felt so beautiful... and fleeting, too.

Maybe that's why, when we completed our circle, Alan was ready to head inside, but I wasn't yet. The sun was also starting to set, and part of me felt like I should try and capture that. So I told Alan I'd be back soon, and started walking west on M Street, in hopes of finding a nice view of the Washington Monument further down the street. I'd just planned to explore a little more, but one snow-covered view led to another and I kept finding interesting things to photograph, and before I knew it, half an hour had passed and I had wandered half a mile down the road. I could see the dome of the Jefferson Memorial peeking out over the top of the overpass in front of me, and I figured since I'd come this far already, I might as well walk to the bridge, to see if I could get some nice shots of the Memorial against the fading sunset. (I also borrowed a cellphone from a guy passing by so I could call Alan and let him know I hadn't fallen into a snow drift or anything, since I hadn't brought my phone with me).

Getting to the actual pedestrian part of the bridge took a little longer than I thought, and some tramping through particularly slushy snow, but finally, I reached the bridge. I was rewarded with this view of the Memorial and the partly-frozen-over Potomac:

But then I looked to my right and almost gasped at the view of the Washington Monument - it had been relatively obscured during my walk and so it seemed to appear out of nowhere:

I found the white of the Monument (illuminated by its floodlights) really beautiful against the silver and white trees, sagging over the edge of the Tidal Basin.

I didn't have a chance to take pictures for very long before it became dark and I figured I ought to get home. But as I walked back along the empty streets, occasionally moving off to the side to let a snowplow go by, I felt kind of proud of myself for being an intrepid little snow explorer, and for letting the desire to get a good photograph motivate me. As someone who doesn't really consider herself a photographer, I don't often get to experience that feeling.

Posted by Jennifer at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know, it's been a while. But I'm not going to worry about what I've missed! I'm moving forward.

Things that are exciting right now: it's snowing! And not just any snow, either. You've probably heard, but we're in the middle of an "epic snowstorm" that's predicted to drop (according to the latest NWS update) 20-30" of snow on the metro DC area. And this is the second time we've had double-digit snowfall this winter (the first time was just before the Christmas holidays). Not having experienced this much snow ever in my life, I'm looking forward to this second blizzard and being snowed in. And if we are really going stir-crazy and need to get out, Metro will still be running trains on their underground routes. One of the benefits of living in the city, I guess. (My inner jury is still out as to whether I prefer city life to suburban life - I know, I really WANT to be a city person - so I'll tally that one up in the "city" column.)

Also, new year's resolutions. I've actually thought about them this year. I'm not normally one to care about resolutions but for some reason this year I've come up with very quantitative ones that I have taken great care to make realistic, like:

-Listen to more music: log 1000 tracks on last.fm (currently I'm at 4869)
-Make at least one post on this blog a month (well, with the exception of January... oops)
-Establish a better personal routine: make a habit of doing at least one thing on a semi-regular basis (like, wear my contacts, eat breakfast, exercise)

...

Hmm... I guess I really just wanted to document my last.fm count (which is pretty sad, given that Ethan's at 44,581...).

Anyway, another exciting thing: I'm going to NYC next weekend! Another nice thing about DC is that it's relatively inexpensive and convenient to take the bus to NYC (and the buses these days have wireless and individual power outlets for each seat, so you're pretty much set). I'm meeting some friends there who are flying in from Atlanta, and we're staying at a hostel near Columbus Circle. We're near Central Park and within walking distance of Times Square. I've never stayed at a hostel (when I studied abroad in Europe my sophomore year, we stayed in pretty nice hotels) - so I'm kind of looking forward to adding that to my superficial list of "travel-savvy experiences." You know what I mean.

Aaand that's about it for this first post in a while. Alan made a dinner reservation for some nice restaurant near his work, so out I go, into the snow and underground.

Posted by Jennifer at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today at lunchtime I reached into my backpack only to find that my wallet was missing. I searched around in various pockets and thought briefly about what might have happened to it, but my lunchmates were waiting impatiently -- so after asking if one of them could spot me some money, I put it out of my mind until later.

When I got back from lunch, I gave it a little more thought. I had gone bowling last night as part of a team social for work. Because the bowling alley we went to was on a military base, I'd had to get out my wallet to show my ID at the entrance of the base, which meant there was a good chance that I left it at the bowling alley. And yet, I figured one of my coworkers would surely have picked it up and given it back to me. With that in mind, I thought perhaps I'd just left it at home somewhere. I mentally retraced my morning movements around our apartment, but my subconscious couldn't really remember anything. So with more calm than usual, I decided not to worry about it until I got home later that evening and could confirm whether or not my wallet was really lost.

On the metro ride home from work, I pulled out my cellphone for the first time all day. I confess that I have pretty crappy cellphone etiquette -- not that many people besides Alan call me, so usually my cellphone stays buried at the bottom of my purse or backpack, and I can go whole days without checking it. Today, though, I had a missed call from an unknown local number at 10am. I immediately became concerned, and listened to the accompanying voicemail. It turned out to be from someone from my State Farm office, telling me what I expected to hear: that someone had found my wallet. That person had called the only phone number in my wallet -- the one listed on my auto insurance card -- and had left her number with State Farm, and now the State Farm agent was passing along her number to me.

I was halfway home, but got off the train at the next metro station, not only to ensure consistent cellphone reception (although my provider, Verizon, is the only one that gets reception in the underground portions of the DC Metro, it can still be sketchy through tunnels), but also to avoid the embarrassment of having everyone else around me on the train hear that I'd lost my wallet. As I dialed my wallet-finder's number, I noticed with some trepidation that my cellphone battery was down to one bar. Luckily, it held out, my finder picked up, and, happily, she sounded just as relieved as I was that I'd finally contacted her.

"I was about to go over to your house to see if I could find you!" she told me in between my gushes of "oh my gosh, thank you so much" and "I can't believe you've gone to so much trouble already!" We arranged to meet at the metro station where she lived. "Okay, but just wait inside the station, I'll come down there so you don't have to pay the exit fare," she said, to my further disbelief -- so considerate! I told her I'd call again when I got there.

Ten minutes later, we finally met at the turnstiles of the Cleveland Park metro station. Upon seeing her -- a short, motherly lady in her late thirties or forties, Filipino maybe? she had a slight accent that I couldn't quite identify -- I asked, "Can I give you a hug?" She handed back my wallet and I gushed more thanks while searching for a $20 bill I could give her (which I didn't have, but she refused to accept anything anyway). She told me that her grandfather had actually been the one to find it, sitting on top of one of the car racing machines (which I had played) in the arcade room at the bowling alley. She hadn't wanted to leave it with the bowling alley, she said, because she had left her wallet at a Burger King once, and later, after she'd gotten it back from the manager, she found charges on her statement. And -- this was the part that made me feel incredibly grateful on top of everything else -- I learned that she and her grandfather hadn't been at the bowling alley until this morning... which meant that my wallet had sat in the arcade room all night without anyone finding or taking it.

I think I must have shaken her hand a dozen times before we bid goodbye. As I headed back toward the platform, she laughed and waved after me, "Be careful, don't lose it!" My final stroke of good fortune happened several minutes later, as I was trying to send a text message to Alan: my cellphone finally ran out of battery.

On the train ride back home, I couldn't get over just how nice this woman had been, and felt a renewed faith in the goodness of human beings. I had a piece of paper she had brought down with her -- a Mapquest printout showing directions from her address to mine. I thought about using that to send her a thank-you note, but guessed that she didn't include an apartment number with her address. I wondered if I could figure it out with a little online research. It was only then that I realized that the name she had given my State Farm agent, the name which I'd called her by all night -- "Divina Grace" -- might not have been her real name after all.

Posted by Jennifer at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On Saturday Alan and I braved the winter cold and went out with some friends. "Going out" is something I haven't done much of recently, and since we didn't leave our apartment until after 9pm, it felt like even more of a special occasion. Look at us, staying out late the way young professionals are supposed to!

We took the metro downtown and met Kim and Daniel at the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House, and to my surprise, even at that hour, there was quite a crowd of people there, huddled around the nearby firepit, taking pictures, trying to find their specific state tree among the circle of regular Christmas trees surrounding the giant one. It was pretty impossible not to feel a little bit of the holiday spirit, especially since we were all bundled up with our heavy jackets, scarves, gloves, and earmuffs, with our breaths making thick white puffs in the air.

I had brought my camera with me, of course, outfitted with my new image-stabilization lens ("Kim and I both forgot to bring our cameras," Daniel said upon our arrival, "but we figured you'd have yours"; I'm glad I didn't let them down), and we took the requisite photos of the four of us in front of the big Tree. They came out about as well as I could have hoped, considering that it was nighttime, we were backlit by a giant glowing tree, and we had to get a random passerby who didn't know how to use my SLR to take it for us.

Afterwards, we walked the five blocks to Tonic Restaurant & Bar in Foggy Bottom, where we found a table right under one of the heating vents and defrosted with some beers. Alan left soon after to meet up with some other friends of his who were headed to Georgetown, while Daniel, Kim and I had another round, passing the time talking about work, how our Thanksgivings went, Christmas schedules, inauguration, and! plans for a possible weekend trip to New York City one of these days. When the bar started to grow empty, we finished up our drinks and got ready to head out, putting on our coats and warm things again. We walked to the Foggy Bottom metro station and waited for our trains: Kim's, a westbound blue line train, came first, so we bid her goodbye; Daniel and I boarded the next blue line train in the opposite direction and rode together a few stops before Daniel had to get off to transfer.

It was only then that I got out my cellphone to check the time and saw that it was past 1am. I had a missed call from Alan, too. After calling him back and learning that he, too, was on his way home (in his friend's car), I spent the rest of the train ride in the relative quiet of the late-night metro-riding crowd, my slight alcohol buzz wearing off, happy at how quickly and how pleasantly the evening had gone by. I think it was the first time I'd been on the Metro that late, and the first time I felt that I wasn't such a stranger in DC anymore.

Posted by Jennifer at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, I take back what I said in my previous post. There is one thing that's changed since Alan and I got married: we have a lot more stuff. Even though we got rid of (sold, donated, gave away) a lot of our things when we left California, we later got lots of nice wedding presents, and then once we moved to DC, we bought new furniture, an HDTV, and various other essentials for the home. All this, despite the fact that our apartment in DC is probably two-thirds the size of our old apartment in California.

It especially feels like we have a lot more kitchen stuff. Which, don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about. We do have a nicer kitchen here in DC -- granite countertops, stainless steel GE Profile appliances, a gas stove! -- so in that respect, I suppose, it justifies the increase in our material possessions.

It also inspired me to make a list of my favorite kitchen things, things that I've found to be particularly useful in our new apartment -- even though I'm guessing most of the people that still keep up with this weblog (comment and let me know who you are!) probably don't care. I was also partially inspired by this post at Not Martha, listing things that the author likes in hopes that they might make good gift ideas. In the same vein, maybe my list of kitchen things will be a source of gift ideas for some of you.

Continue reading...

Posted by Jennifer at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So, this time last year, I was participating in National Blog Posting Month, attempting to write a post every day. That was a fun exercise, but these days I feel like I need better reasons to post. Granted, I've gone through a lot of transition these past couple months:

(quick summary, for those of you who don't follow along with me on my Flickr stream, or my LiveJournal, or wherever else I play around on the internet these days)

June: left the Bay Area, moved back to Georgia
August: got married (!!!), went on our honeymoon to Costa Rica
September: moved to Washington, DC

I guess my excuse is that I'm too busy "transitioning" to post anything here, but at the same time, aren't transitions usually GOOD reasons to post? I'm sad I never wrote a sentimental "Goodbye, Bay Area" post, because certainly, there are things I miss about it -- the weather and accessible farmers' markets are only the first things that spring to mind.

And getting married, of all things, definitely should have deserved some reflection. Although, I must tell you, being married is pretty much a non-event. The wedding itself was, and I remember it as a happy blur, a joyous celebration, a relief (I didn't sleep a wink the night before). But if you asked me how life has changed since Alan and I got married, I would be hard put to give you an answer. In fact, when Alan and I went on a weekend trip to New Orleans a couple weeks ago with some friends of his from Georgia, at first I would introduce myself as Jennifer and then qualify that with "Alan's wife" -- but that always felt rather strange, and I stopped doing it after a while. I suppose one day I'll get used to it.

I feel like there should be more, a reflective thought, a clever conclusion, but I think this'll have to be it for now. Baby steps, I guess.

Posted by Jennifer at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We can hear cheering and celebration outside our apartment, people screaming, "OBAMA!!!! OBAMA!!!" It is truly awesome and amazing.

Posted by Jennifer at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)