Ramble On

Old Town Alexandria.... How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. The Potomac. This river, while full of unsavory things, is still very beautiful to look at, calming to my soul, and is a neverending source of joy for me.   I can walk to all my grocery stores.   the GW Parkway.  A beautiful and stoplight-free stretch of road with stone bridges and lovely panoramas.   Evening walks down on King St. make me feel like I am crashing about 150 dates at any given time.   The lights in the trees on King St.  PX - swanky cocktails with a side order of pretension.  But I always feel special when I go there.   The rooftop of my building, where I can seek a cool breeze, watch thunderstorms roll in, or get a great perch to photograph sunrises or sunsets.  Biking or running into the District.  It's close, but I still feel like I live a world away. Moonlit walks on soft summer evenings along the water. The more romantically inclined from ...

Thanksgiving was so late this year, coming directly on the heels of Advent.  This year I wanted to explore more of the many activities DC offers at Christmas time, and revel in the beauty of this city under the limited winter light.  A majority of the new people I meet in DC are from somewhere else.  But my closest friends here claim the metro area as their own hometown.  This resident tourist series sparked from a kindling of love for this area and a desire to know it better, despite the length of my relationship with it.  Even though I have kept up with the promise to undertake in one new DC thing per month, I haven't kept with the blogging part.  So now with Christmas upon me, I figured I should get it out there before the moment has passed. One thing that DC does well is museums.  They are excellent museums, with expertly curated collections and they are free! Since going to South Africa, zoos are pretty much ruined for me, but I still love to go....

I am a long-time resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia.  2013 has afforded the opportunity for me to drive from the far western hills to the waves lapping at the shores in the east.  Most recently, I was in the east to a place I had never visited: Chincoteague. Prior to this, the closest I got to Chincoteague was a trip to Wallop's Island Marine Science Consortium in High School and we did a bunch of research on tidal basin water.  Turns out I was about 5 miles from Chincoteague and I was none the wiser.  Anyway, it was a pretty fun trip.  Here's what I remember the most: My friend Becca and I were finished with the experiments for the day and we were walking to the dining hall or evening meeting or something.  (The details are a little foggy after so many years.) We were walking past the boys lodge and we heard someone singing in the shower.  It was my good friend Brian who was singing a song dedicated to another friend on the trip, Charlie...

I have lived in the DC Metro area on and off since I was 5 years old.  I have been away from it for a collective total of 11 years, if you count college when I was still coming home most summers.  I make it a point to try new things and also to never forsake my first loves, if you will. I recently came to a point where I almost left DC for a job.  It ended up not working out but in my head and partly in my heart I had one foot out the door.  Since that time, it struck me that there is a lot in DC that I don't take enough advantage of.  When I was studying there, my Parisian host mom always told me "Profites-en bien!" meaning "take good advantage of being here!"  She's right.  Some of the best recent advice I have been given is to "bloom where you are planted".  Therefore, since my lease on DC has been renewed in a metaphorical sense, how can I bloom in this ground which I call home? Something has surfaced as I've thought about this, also ta...

I can't remember the last time I was so looking forward to the open road.  Generally a 700 mile road trip alone would be discomforting, but as this trip started taking shape, I yearned for it. A few months back my older brother suggested that we go to Merlefest, an annual bluegrass festival held in Wilkesboro, NC in the far western part of the state.  My brother and father are both avid Doc Watson fans, and this festival was started by Doc to honor his son, Merle, who died in a tractor accident about 25 years ago.  Doc himself just died last year.  A beautiful blues/bluegrass singer, he is remembered for his generosity, encouragement of other musicians, and dry humor. This isn't something I would normally do, but the location of the festival made it more attractive because it would lead me past Charlottesville and Blacksburg, where two of my favorite people from my life in Williamsburg are now in school.  I decided it would be fun to bond with my brother and...