The District!

What do you get when you put an Allie, a Courtney, a Sam, a Ryan, a Lily, a Finn, a Crosby and a Whitney all in the same city?

A rilly rilly good weekend! Di! I had so much fun in DC.

The weekend was kick-started perfectly when I arrived in DC (OK Baltimore. I messed up a little) and AlPal had a large coffee waiting for me. Not only that, but she paid $1 extra to get me the travel mug, which was pretty much the best souvenir I could have asked for.
We then went back to her cute apartment, where she’d purchased all of my favorite snacks for an hors d’oeuvres dinner. After that, we met up with her friends in Adams Morgan, and I got to get a taste of DC’s nightlife.
The next day, we did a little shopping, then met Sam and Court&Co. on the Mall. As usual, no words can really express how wonderful it was to be with them. After lunch Allie and I thoroughly discussed our plan to get our family all in one spot again. This GA to VA to IN to CO (and in between!) spread is cramping our style.
Courtney also hand delivered my Reginald’s peanut butter, and, let me tell you: it was worth the wait. I highly  recommend the Cashew Nilla. It’s like dessert, but without sugar! Unreal.
After we left them, Allie and I went on an extremely long walk from her apartment in the District to Georgetown, and back again. On the return route we discovered an exercise trail, which pretty much turned a good walk into a great walk. And, embarrassingly, my obliques were a little sore the next day. I guess those stations work!
Saturday night, we went out in DuPont Circle, to which we also returned the next day for brunch.
I am so grateful to not only have gotten to explore DC – both on foot and via a car – but also to have had the time with Al. I love being able to visualize her life when she tells me she’s running this errand, or seeing this friend.
Thank you for your fabulous hostessing, Allie!

darker than my skin

My freshman year of college, my friend Maggie always forced herself to drink her coffee black, because she, who was pre-med, said that if she was ever going to be a real doctor, she had to learn to like it that way. I'm not sure who told her this, but she was adamant about it as she struggled through the bitter every day.

I have the exact opposite relationship with coffee. Skim? Yep. Cream? Of course. Sugar? Obviously.

For a while now, Katie and Sara have been trying to get my to drink it a little darker. They joke that no matter what, even in the dead of winter, my coffee is always paler than me. I'd like to think they're complimenting my complexion, but I'd be lying to myself.

However, I mentioned last week that I am sugar free so far in 2012 (minus the occasional cocktail), and the most difficult challenge has been my java.

This is how I like it:
However, I'm making strides and am down to just a little cream:
And even sometimes, Maggie-style:
Soon enough I'll be drinking with the doctors!

check it off

Two of the things I most strongly believe in are:
1. Laziness is the real root of all evil.
2. Clutter is draining and exhausting.

I also very strongly believe in list making and (I should not admit this, I realize) make two lists every day, one professional and one personal. It's a pretty solid process; I make the list in the morning, and then highlight as I go throughout the day. The list for work is in a notepad and the personal one is on looseleaf lined paper. After I check everything off, I throw it away. But, if I haven't finished something on it, I can't throw the list away.

Last weekend, I was a little behind on things, and realized I was carrying 13 lists around. 13! And then it hit me: this is equivalent to clutter. Sure, they're all stashed away in my planner. But they're still draining - especially since all of them had one, or maybe two, things on them. And - worst of all - it was almost the same thing on every list: buy bike for triathlon.

Seriously? I don't need 13 reminders to buy a bike for a race I'm doing, especially since it is at the forefront of my mind how insanely behind I am going to be if I don't get on it.

And the sickest part of all is that on a few of the lists, one of the tasks was: manage lists.

It's a disease.

I checked the remaining items off, minus the bike (grr!), and allowed myself to purge all of the lists with "buy bike!" on it. I don't think I am going to forget.

And. I'm actually lying because I consolidated everything into a new list and put little bikey on there. It's getting checked off reallll soon. Promise.

PS: Don't judge me.

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