Springtime in Washington

Most people hear "Washington" and immediately think of Congress, politics, and partisan bickering. Yes, that's all part of Washington, but it's also so much more than that. It's a city/metropolitan area filled with art. And gorgeous architecture. And amazing museums, monuments, and landmarks. Mix all of that together with Mother Nature and at certain times of the year, it is a city of breath-taking beauty. This is one of those times of year....

Tragic

My thoughts & prayers are with the family of Stephen Johns, the security guard who was shot & killed at the US Holocaust Museum yesterday. How sad that a place that stands in witness of the consequences of mankind's inhumanity and of the dangers of intolerance became a place of further intolerance.

Thankful Thursday

Things I'm grateful for this week:

• Thursday -- only one day left until the weekend, yay!!
  


• Pandora -- I know, I'm late to the party. I've actually known about pandora.com for a while, but until a recent upgrade to our computers/network at the office, we couldn't get to or use it. Now that we can, I've had it playing in the background nearly every day. Of course, I've been grooving to lots of old favorites, but the best thing is the new-to-me songs or artists I've discovered when it's given me things that are similar in nature to those songs I told it I like. If you aren't already using it, check it out!!
  


• Spring flowers -- Between the cherry blossoms & the magnolia blooms, DC is pretty much busting at the seams. Add in the daffodils and tulips blooming in my front yard, and it's pretty hard not to smile or not to be in a good mood.
  


• Getting a major vote of confidence from the higher-ups at work. Even better was being able to back up that vote of confidence by taking the ball & running with it/finishing the project within the time frame in which it was needed. Something like that is always nice, but it's especially satisfying given the current economy. Every little bit of extra job security is a good thing as far as I'm concerned!
  


• My foster puppy FINALLY being out of heat. She was scheduled to be spayed so she could move on to her permanent home, but came into heat just before, which meant the surgery had to be postponed. She's now out of heat (and acting/feeling more like herself again), which means that a) we can reschedule the surgery, and b) I can take her out for walks again. Being able to get her adequate exercise will certainly help evenings be calmer around my household until she moves on to her forever home!!!
  


• Good friends who have rallied around me these past couple of weeks as I've had to deal with a difficult person and the resulting drama said person likes to cause. While such things are just a part of life & we all have to deal with them from time to time, it's great to know I've got people who have my back and make such unpleasantness more bearable.

How bout you? What are you thankful for today? (Thanks to Tib for the super-fly, retro-inspired new graphic.)

Spring in Washington

Spring is one of the most beautiful times in Washington. Ppl come from all over to see the famous cherry blossoms. They are most concentrated around the Tidal Basin, near the Jefferson Memorial & that area is usually very crowded during peak bloom, but there are other areas with beautiful blooms as well.I'm still learning what my camera can do, what settings produce what shots, etc. The best way to do this is to practice, so I brought my camera to work the other day & planned to go over to the Tidal Basin to take pics after work. Unfortunately, I had to finish some stuff up & didn't get out as early as I'd hoped. Thus, I decided to skip the 2 mile walk to the Tidal Basin in favor of spending the time (and the good lighting conditions) shooting near the US Capitol, along the Mall, and near the White House instead.These are some of my favorites from the shoot. (If the weather conditions cooperate, there will be more coming, but the forecast doesn't look too good for the rest of the week.)

Golly Gee!!

Tiburon had a fun meme -- ask for a letter & once she assigns you one, list 10 things you like that start with that letter. I decided I'd play along and she assigned me the letter "G". So here, in random order, are 10 things I like that start with the letter G:

1. Going places -- I love to travel. It's been a while since I've gone somewhere new and I'm itching to go exploring. Ireland, Croatia and Italy are the places that are really intriguing me currently, but I'm open to lots of different places and ideas.

2. Getting organized -- something I'm working on & desperately need to do more of.

3. Griffin -- my 22-month old nephew. He's developing quite a good sense of humor and it's a lot of fun to be around him and to watch him grow/develop.

4. Cary Grant -- The characters he played in the old movies are just about my perfect man: smooth, sophisticated, intelligent, with a wicked sense of humor and a dazzling wit. He also trained as an acrobat prior to acting, so there is an extra "something" in his movements that step his performance up to a different level. See The Philadelphia Story or North by Northwest or Bringing Up Baby to see what I mean.

which brings me to

5. George Clooney -- I've already admitted to his being a guilty pleasure of mine. After this little exchange between him and his father earlier this week here in DC, I'd have to say he's about approaching my Kryptonite.

6. Games -- I'm a big time games and puzzle person.

7. Gargoyles -- especially those with a sense of humor. If you ever come to Washington, DC, I highly recommend visiting the National Cathedral. One side of the building has more traditional gargoyles & grotesques, but the other side steps out of the box, so to speak. There are alligators, elephants, cats, dogs, etc., as well as a construction worker whistling at the girls who attend the all-girls school right next to the cathedral. There's also a Darth Vader.
8. Gourmet Chocolate -- I'm not above a Reeses Peanut Butter cup or the equivalent, but when I have the opportunity to indulge in some fine Belgian or Swiss chocolate, I pretty much never turn it down.

9. Good friends -- for they make this ride worthwhile.

10. Google Reader -- the ultimate tool for keeping up on those blogs I like to read.

Anyone else want to play along? If so, just let me know in the comments and I'll assign you a letter.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

A Winter Wonderland

We were let off of work at 2:00 pm today. While quite nice, it presented a small logistical problem since the bus I take to get from the metro station to home doesn't start running in the evenings until 4:00 pm. Not wanting to just sit around waiting, I decided to take advantage of having my office near the National Mall and catch the holiday display at the US Botanical Gardens.

It was phenomenal!! The main atrium is filled with pointsettias in bloom. Nestled in among them are replicas of the major DC landmarks like the Supreme Court bldg, the US Capitol, the Lincoln & Jefferson Memorials, the White House etc., all crafted from natural botanic materials. After my recent photo shoot of the Capitol and the Supreme Court bldgs, I can say they did a great job recreating these landmarks!! Unfortunately, I didn't know I would be doing this today, so I didn't have a camera with me. The pictures above are courtesy of the US Botanical Gardens website.

Off the main atrium is the "Winter Wonderland" display which is an amazing area filled with different tableaux and 4 or 5 toy trains that crisscross thru them. There was "Castle Mountain" and "Fairytale Forest" just to name a few areas. By design, this display is viewable both from inside and thru the large picture windows, so it was fun to see little kids with their faces pressed up against the windows trying to get a peek.

It was the perfect way to start the long holiday weekend!!

Now, I'm off to wrap a few final presents and then head off for our traditional Christmas Eve activities. Merry Christmas Eve to one and all!

We Clean Up OK

This was taken at our dance gig a week ago.
That marble floor was a killer on the feet/joints, but the atmosphere was stunning!

Thankful Thursday

It's that time again -- time to take a moment to focus on gratitude and the things for which I'm thankful. This week, I'm thankful for:

• Getting the chance to get out with the camera and get creative for a bit. It felt good to rekindle my joy in photography and I'm very happy with some of the shots I took. Thanks, too, go to Will, a professional photographer from Colorado who I met as we were both shooting pics near the Capitol. He was kind enough to offer suggestions and pass on bits of his knowledge.
  


• Getting to see my nephews this upcoming weekend. The older of the 2 boys is 4 years old, so Christmas is pretty magical to him this year. I love getting to be part of that.



• Getting to spread a little holiday joy. Each year, we take a group of dancers to the Armed Forces Retirement Home's holiday party. It's a chance to dance with and for the veterans, spend some time talking to them, and in general, just spreading a little goodwill. It's one of my favorite holiday traditions & will take place tomorrow evening.



• The wonderful massage I got last weekend. As a dancer, I beat my body up on a pretty consistent basis. Last weekend was no exception since our gig on Sat night was 7 hrs long and we were dancing on a marble floor. I was most definitely sore after that!! But, since this wasn't the first time we'd done this event, I knew to expect being sore & scheduled a massage for Sunday. My last 3 massages really didn't do much to help; they were nice, but my muscles fight back/require a bit of convincing that they need to release & the past couple of massages I had never reached that point. This time, however, was different -- I went to a new place & this new massage therapist was fantastic!! I'm still feeling the benefits!! And, since this place was considerably less expensive than the other places I'd tried, not to mention more conveniently located, you can bet I'll be going back!!
  
  
• The adorable ornaments I got from Mindi. There's a music clef that represents my dancing and a beautiful bird that can either be hung conventionally or can be clipped onto a tree branch as if it's perching. Pics will be coming as soon as I change the batteries in my camera. Thanks, Mindi -- They are perfect!!
  
  
• Hearing that the package I shipped for my neices and nephews in Vancouver, BC arrived yesterday. Last year, it didn't get there until the 2nd week of January, even tho I shipped it around the same time. There's a strike going on in some of the Canadian postal system, so I was worried this year would be the same, despite being told 5-10 days when I shipped it. Glad to know it made it!!

So, that's my list today. What's on yours?

Playing Tourist in my own backyard

I'm updating our website and my boss suggested using some pics to jazz it up a bit. He was willing to buy some stock photos from a couple of professional websites, but since we're so close to some of the famous landmarks, I suggested just giving me an hour sometime with the good work camera & letting me go play a bit. When I got brain-fried yesterday, I decided that was just what would perk me up, so I grabbed the camera & headed out.

It was a perfect day for it!! It was 60-ish degrees & we had a storm front on its way here, so there were some interesting cloud formations, as you can see. (I *much* prefer shooting on cloudy days to shooting in bright sun -- the results are always much more interesting!) In addition, I decided to do this a little before 4:00 pm & since it gets dark here just before 5:00 pm nowadays, that meant I had the "golden hour" of twilight to play with. I love how the colors change so much, from one shot to the next, in such a short time frame.

The ones I'll use for work are more "standard", but I also took some more artistic shots for myself. The ones on this post are some of my favorites from around the US Capitol and the Supreme Court bldg.

Enjoy!!

Gettin' Ready

Like most places, DC is getting ready for the holidays. The Capitol Christmas tree arrived earlier this week and as I walked across the Mall yesterday, workers were busy getting it strung with lights and such. It will be lit next week. In addition, the US Botanical Gardens had their wreaths and lights up. One of the Metro stations I was in yesterday also had garland and ribbons and wreaths up. It'll soon be quite festive around here.

Unlike other cities, DC is also getting ready for the innaugural on January 20th. As I walked across the Capitol grounds, the scaffolding out on the steps of the Capitol was already being built.

I'll try to remember to bring my camera with me on Friday and get some pictures of everything. (Should be a quiet/slow day at the office.) I'll try to get some pictures. If I do, I'll post them then.

Thankful Thursday Friday

Traveling this week has left me scrambling to catch up, so I'm a little late, but thankful none the less. This week I'm thankful for:

• Being home -- I like traveling, but I'm always glad to come home.
  
  
• Those things Washington DC has to offer like great museums, wonderful theatre & arts, etc. I'm reminded every time I go away how many nice things this city/area offers.
  
  
• My dogs --it's so nice to see how much they've missed me whenever I go away. Makes me feel special. :-)
  
  
• A great cadre of volunteers --without their help, we couldn't run the dances we offer. This is especially noticeable this week since I was gone for much of it and couldn't have managed the details even if I'd wanted to.
  
  
• My dance partner -- who did keep things running while I was gone. Teaching classes or filming a partner-based dance show is not easy to do solo and he had to do both this week. Thanks, darlin', you're a gem!
  
  
• Making 2 new friends at work -- this trip, I was paired up with 2 ppl I'd neither met nor worked with before. Given the nature of the trip, one spends long hours (14-16 hr days, or even longer) as a team, most of the time in one car, so there's no getting away from one another if personalities clash or you just aren't a good fit. I was paired with 2 wonderful people with great senses of humor. Within a very short time, we were laughing and joking with each other as if we were old friends. It made the very long work days a lot nicer than if we hadn't really clicked.
  
  
• Being healthy -- Last time I had to do this type of work assignment was a couple of years ago. I was not well, so those 16-hour days really were trying. This time around was a MUCH better experience.
  
  
• Our veterans. And the troops currently serving our country. They deserve our thanks & more! Take a moment or 2 this upcoming Tuesday to at least honor them, if not doing something to actively thank them.

Props to Tiburon for the great new autumnal graphic & the original idea for the Thankful Thursday posts. Feel free to take the idea and the graphic and play along.

Only in DC!

You may have to enlarge the image to get all of the funny details -- my personal favorite part is the small print about how if no one is declared the winner by Nov 5th, contact them and they'll tell you which location is hosting which group.

Thankful Thursday

Wow, I'm even going to get the chance to get this written & posted on Thursday this week....

In no particular order, I'm thankful for:

• Having session #2 of the training class I set up (and to which my boss came) go off smoothly.
  
  
• Eating lunch at a favorite restaurant in Chinatown before that training session since it was held right around the corner from the restaurant.
  
  
• The first signs of color in the trees.
  
  
• Watching the gentleman who hands out newspapers at my subway stop become more comfortable & confident in his English. When he first started, it was a small, shy nod. The nod became a 'hi'. Hi turned into 'Good morning', said with a smile. Now, it's a smile and a 'Good morning' oftentimes coupled with 'Have a good day' or 'Have a nice weekend' if it's Friday.
  
  
• Good, supportive co-workers.
  
  
• 3-day weekend coming up.
  
  
• Really fun students in the series of dance classes we just started.

What makes you thankful this week?

Tag, I'm It

Saw this on Mindi's blog & since she tagged anyone who was reading and wanted to play along, I decided to give it a go.

Seven Random Facts about Me:

1. I collect polar bears. One of my guest rooms is designated as "The Polar Bear Room".
   


2. I'm only 5' 1" tall. (And at that, I'm the tallest female in my immediate family. Scary, huh?)


3. I love chocolate and orange together. Preferably dark chocolate.


4. I've been dog sledding. With my own dogs.


5. Even tho I'm a native Washingtonian, I've never been in the US Capitol or the White House. I'd graduated from high school before I ever made it up the Washington Monument.


6. I've been underneath the Lincoln Memorial.


7. I love ethnic food. If I'm the one picking a restaurant, I'll choose a Thai, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Afghan, Ethiopian, Greek, etc. place over a steak house every time!

I'm supposed to tag 7 people, but I'm going to play this the same way Mindi did: if you are reading this and want to play along, please do so. :-)

Thankful Thursday

Things I'm thankful for this week include:

• Noxious fumes -- I can hear you now, "Girl, what have you been sniffin'?" Hold on & let me 'splain. My office bldg had some bad fumes when we got there this morning. Apparently, they were painting the garage or something like that. (Why they didn't do that on a weekend escapes me, but they didn't ask for my opinion....) Instead of getting better, it kept getting worse. Finally, at about 11:15 am, the bldg management decided to close the bldg. My organization doesn't own the bldg; we just rent a couple of floors, so we had to wait outside on our "fire drill assembly spot" while the higher ups & powers that be were contacted. After about 45 minutes of waiting, they released my section to head off where we could "work at home". *wink* (My boss used air quotes as he said those words.) The storm front that blew through here last night had dropped the heat and humidity, so it was a gorgeous day for this to happen. I gave my sweetie a call and met him for a picnic lunch before heading off to catch a museum exhibit I've been hoping to see before heading home to actually do some work....So, yeah, I'm thankful for noxious fumes!! Best.workday.EVAH!
  
  
• Muppets!! -- The exhibit I went to see this afternoon before heading home is all about Jim Henson and the creative process that brought about the Muppets & various other of his creations. It was interesting to see his development & evolution from his early work on Sam and Friends or for Wilkins Coffee, through Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock and the Dark Crystal. The most amazing thing was to see his initial sketches -- doodles, almost -- for some of the characters we now know and love. It was easy to see the personality he intended for that character and to identify the character it would become, even from a simple line sketch that he probably produced in only a few minutes. He was an incredible visionary!
  
  
• Good neighbors -- Next to me & across the street from me live 2 widows. Since we all live alone, we keep an eye out on each other. I hadn't seen the neighbor across the street in a while, but she was outside as I stepped off the bus the other day. Not only did we catch up, she insisted on sending me home with some homemade spinach lasagne. :-)
  
  
• Tiburon -- she gave me the 411 on the $1.50 cheesecake special coming up this next week. Yum!! In addition, I shared this information with one of my co-workers who is young/just out of school/realizing that it costs more than he thought to live in the real world. A few weeks ago, I clued him in to the free Slurpees at 7-11 that day (also news I got from Tiburon). When I told him about the cheesecake, he stopped, looked at me w/ his mouth slightly agape and said, "How do you know this stuff?". I smiled slyly and told him, "I know people" and left it at that. Tiburon, thanks for sharing that information and making me look good!
  
  
• Good friends -- I've had some serious crap going on in my life for the past year and a half or so. Most of the time, I deal with it pretty well, but occasionally it gets to me. This week was one of those times. A really good friend was there for me & made me feel a lot better. Thanks, Mel!
  
  
• A gladiolus in bloom -- I almost missed it as it's slightly obscured by the lilies that are pretty much finished blooming & the hostas that are in full bloom. It's a beautiful, elegant creamy yellow color. It's early yet for glads here, so it caught me unaware.
  
  
• A night off -- my DDP (Dear Dance Partner) handled our classes without me this week, so I could have a night off, get to sleep early, etc. I love teaching, but sometimes it's nice to play hookey.

So, how bout you? What things are you grateful for this week? Take the logo and make a post in your own blog if you are so inclined. I'll bet ya feel better if you do.

What the Guidebooks Don't Tell You, but Should! Chapter 2: What a Difference a Quadrant Makes!

DC is divided into 4 quadrants: NE, NW, SE, and SW. The magic spot that divides one quadrant from another is the US Capitol. I suspect that the guidebooks you read in preparation for your trip to our fair city did, in fact, tell you this important piece of information, but you were either on information overload or didn't realize it would be on the test, so you glossed over it. Bad move!

As you plan your visit to the various landmarks & points of interest DC has to offer, you'll want to notice in which quadrant each point of interest is located. Knowing that you want to go to a building/statue/memorial/whatever at the intersection of X and Y streets isn't enough; you also need to know which quadrant it's in. This is especially true when said intersection is in the vicinity of the US Capitol as there very well could be 4 different intersections of X and Y street and they might be a goodly number of blocks away from each other. Without the quadrant information, you'll sound like agent Maxwell Smart as you hear yourself saying, "Missed it by that much!"

Oh and one last note: the building/landmark/statue/memorial that you expect to be at the intersection of X and Y streets isn't going to magically appear when you're in the wrong quadrant, no matter how long you stare at the map or point at the street signs & declare, "but we're at the intersections of X and Y street just like it says". This is DC, not Brigadoon!

Seeing What's Around You

I've mentioned before that my office is pretty close to the US Capitol and the National Mall. Given that, when I have to go to meetings or events in another of our office bldgs, I often find myself walking down Constitution Avenue. A couple of weeks ago, I needed to do just that and the reason why required me to have a camera with me.

For those of you not familiar with the area, Constitution Ave forms one of the boundaries of the National Mall. If you've ever watched an inaugural parade or saw part of former Pres. Ford's or former Pres. Reagan's funerals on TV, you've seen it....When on Constitution Ave, most ppl are pretty focused on the Mall-side of the street. Afterall, the street is lined on that side by the various museums or memorials & that's what people have come to see. The other side of the street is pretty much just government office bldgs, so there's nothing interesting to see over there, right?

In a word: wrong!!

Most of those government office bldgs were built during the Depression. As such, there was a big push to find ways to get ppl working. The overwhelming majority of those government bldgs had money set aside in the original construction budget for artwork as a way to generate jobs for the thousands of artists/artisans/craftspeople who desperately needed to find work. As a result, the details of these bldgs are absolutely phenomenal!! To wit:

This decorative urn outside one bldg:
Or this metalwork on a gate at the same bldg:

These 2 statues flank the steps in front of the National Archives:


and check out this bas-relief at the roof line of the Archives:

At another building, this metalwork caught my eye:
I love the juxtaposition of the 3 different types/eras of ships! Here's a close-up of the most modern one:
I L-O-V-E the detailing on this statue: (I would have taken more pics of it, but the guard was a little nervous that I was taking pics of a federal bldg, so I moved on.)

This one sits in front of one of the courthouses in the same general vicinity. When the Scooter Libbey trial was going on, you could sometimes see it in the stand-up shots as reporters gave updates:
I would venture to guess that everyday, hundreds (if not more) people pass these gems (and many others that I didn't have time to get to) and never even see that they exist.