Carpe Gaudium: D. C. Weekend Recap!

1) Arrive evening of Thursday. Find train. Take it. Meet Clare and Rachel at their station. Much grand waving while still within the protective turnstiles occurred. Then there was hugging and yelling and walking to their beautiful place and yammering and eventually sleeping.

2) Rachel goes to work. The rest of us sleep in and attempt to be productive. Then we attempt to open a bank account. Then we attempt to buy groceries. Altogether unsuccessful afternoon. Then there was consumption of some beer (Dogfish Head=good!) and MANY tiny hamburgers and french fries with fancy sauces. Drunk on food only, we proceed to pick up tired Rachel from her long productive day and find some weird place called The Big Hunt. Irish Car Bombs and furry chandeliers ensued, quickly followed by more train travel and sleep.

3) Rachel goes to work (yes, it is Saturday). Muffins of deliciousness are baked. (Rachel's mother's recipe is for pumpkin chocolate chip. Yes, I will be making these.) Productivity is once again attempted and somewhat achieved. Bank accounts are achieved. We go to this great place called Busboys and Poets, and while drinking coffee and whisky and/or more Dogfish Head, we get a phone call from Toby! I haven't gotten a call from him in over a year, so it was wonderful to hear from him. We hung around and eventually met Rachel and her party of folks from work, and had some delicious dinner. Then we went to a house party (!), which was strange. But I met some cool folks that know Rachel, and that was good. One of them is a grad student at the New School and lives in Harlem. Cool enough, but on top of that he also works on the sort of things that intersect with the sort of things that I work on. He gave me some good hints on things to sink my teeth into in New York, so I'm really glad I met him. We return to their apartment and Clare and Rachel go to bed. I stay up until 3:30 studying.

4) It is beautiful out. We get up at an awfully early hour. Rachel goes to work. Clare and I go to Big Bear Café (sorry, no actual bears of either type) and finish our homework. We then go to the East Market Farmer's Market and Rachel eventually joins us. Purchasing of produce commences. I try Honeycrisp apples and "Asian pears" for the first time and am duly impressed. Pumpkin butter is purchased (mmmm...pumpkin...). We all get a little whiny, and I decide to take off for a glass of wine, a cup of tea, and some alone time for both me and them. We all nap. Harmoniousness is restored! I get ahold of Cedric (yay!), someone who I should have first hung out with long ago. Actually, Cedric and I knew of each other in Madison, and he would frequently drive past me on the street and lean out the window to yell my name. But we never hung out, I don't know why. Anyway, he lives and works in DC now, so I was stoked to get to grab a smoothie with him. He had a cold (boo), but we still managed to talk almost incessantly for several hours. He's an amazing, sweet person, a great listener, a critical thinker, and I look forward to chilling with him again. I return to Clare and Rachel's, and on the way I get to talk to Mingwei! It sounds like she's doing very well. I study some more and Clare and Rachel watch Mary Poppins. We sleep.

5) I get up this morning, pack and shower, say goodbye my friends, and hoof it downtown. I arrive at the bus just on time to be told that my ticket is for the wrong date (WHA?!). I am forced to buy a new bus ticket. Boo. 5 hour bus ride in which sleep is always interrupted first by our arrival in Baltimore, and later by the terrible, speeding bus driver constantly needing to slam on the breaks to avoid carnage. I stop by this place called Izumi Shushi near 28th and 7th, where I honestly had the best sushi I've had so far in NY. It wasn't super creative, although the lunch specials were good; it was the freshness of the fish. It was definitely exactly like fresh raw fish should taste like. I really recommend the toro scallion roll, which I switched for something else on a whim at the last minute. It was by far my favorite, but I also had eel, salmon, and regular tuna, and all of the fish tasted amazing. Quality of products really make a difference; even the avocado tasted amazing. Then I caught a train home and met my cat. Yay. I would have had a nap, but the drummer upstairs is still going nuts (he must be teaching lessons or suffer from some debilitating mental disorder WHEREUPON HE BECOMES INCREDIBLY ANNOYING. Always when I am trying to nap). Anyway, I've spent the rest of the afternoon studying and trying to buy cat food. I'm passing out soon. The blissful sleep I've been trying to get all weekend is calling me.

All in all, I have a beautiful trip which severely combated my loneliness. I feel much my old self. Here are some photos of around their apartment. More are up on fb. Enjoy!

Clare works: