V-day and Week from...you know

Since DC tends to make everything a little more stressful, C and I decided not to try to brave the Valentine's Day crowd. Instead, we went to ACKC, one of the best DC chocolatiers, before having dinner at my apt. ACKC was, not surprisingly, pretty crowded. It was V-day, so one would think that they would be prepared for a large crowd, but it was like a comedy of errors. Everything in the store was broken. One of their big draws during the winter is their flavored hot chocolates, but something was wrong with their flavor, so they only had regular hot chocolate. Luckily, we weren't there for the hot chocolate - we wanted their chocolate and wine. We had gotten a "DC Tasting Table" e-mail that touted the store's new chocolate and wine pairings. When I got to the front I ordered 2 of the "2 chocolates and 2 wines" tasting, which are 2 wine tastings each paired with a chocolate. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I'd like 2 of the "2 chocolates and 2 wines"
ACKC guy: Ok, 2 of the what?
Me: I want 2 of the "2 chocolates and 2 wines." Meaning, I want 2 in quantity. I want 2 champagnes and 2 of this red (which I pointed to him on the menu).
ACKC guy: Ok, what year is that? I'm not old enough to drink, so I don't know.
Me: No problem. It's this one, the 2007 (again pointing on the menu).
ACKC: So, you want 2 of those?
Me: Yes, I want 2 of those plus 2 of the champagnes for the "2 chocolates and 2 wines."
ACKC: Ok, that'll be $9.
Me: For 2 of them?
ACKC: Oh, you wanted 2. Ok, look at this and make sure I wrote it right. 2 champagnes and 2 2007 Cotes du Rhone.
Me: Yes, that's right.

We sat down at the bar and watched them scurry around in the back, making hot chocolate. When they came to our order, the lady went to the cashier and had basically the same conversation with him that I had. If naming something "2 chocolates and 2 wines" was going to be so difficult, then should have named it something without numbers.

When they finally straightened out the confusion, they brought us our order in these cute little glasses where the chocolate is in the bottom and the wine is in a small glass that fits in the top. The only flaw is that the top glass doesn't have a flat bottom, so you can't set it down by itself; C almost learned the hard way. The email and menu made a big deal of how good a pairing could be and listed out all the different, unusual chocolates that would match well, so I was a little disappointed when I saw that I had 2 dark chocolate truffles and C had 1 dark and 1 milk chocolate. The champagne and truffle was fabulous! I was definitely impressed by the matching, no matter how simple. The 2nd was gross. The chocolate was delicious, but the wine tasted like butter water - yuck.

Anyways, I didn't mean to turn that into a review. It was just an amusing experience for us. For dinner, we had baked grits with proscuitto and mushrooms (C did an excellent job on the sauce), salad, and skirt steak with garlic cilantro sauce. It was really yummy and so much easier and more relaxing than fighting a DC crowd.

Avoiding stress on Sunday night was especially important since Monday was the beginning of the week from Hades. As mentioned in my previous blog, we had a lot of snow that caused me to lose 4 days of school. Not that I really minded at the time, but I knew it would come back to haunt me. This past week we resumed a normal schedule, but it consisted of a lot of catch up. The way it was originally designed, I was to have exams on a fairly consistent schedule: Thursday (of snow week), Wed, Wed, and Tues in consecutive weeks. Our redesigned schedule moved our snow week test to the next Thurs, and the Wed test was pushed to Fri. What it meant for me: back to back tests. Not fun. I made it through the first test and pulled a college-style (semi) all-nighter to survive. I made it - just to start the cycle all over again next week.

Snow Days

Well, once again, I've fallen short on blogging. It's been a crazy couple of months. I finished my first semester of anesthesia school - only 6 more to go. C and I went to NYC after I finished my finals and right before Christmas where we got engaged (!). He did a really good job, and I was completely surprised. Now, I'm trying to figure how to plan a wedding long distance and how to make it work with my school schedule.



We went to Bham for Christmas and had a great time seeing family. For New Years we went to Nashville and had a blast ringing in 2010 with friends.

Before I knew it, it was time to start school again. This semester has definitely been heavier than the last one - 2 extra classes will do that. A few things that have happened thus far to make my life a little more interesting:

-My car was involved in a hit and run. It snowed on the last weekend of February, and C made a grocery store run for me. He was parked on the side of the street when a car came by and scraped my car. The other car subsequently drove away. C chased him several blocks and was able to get the license plate number. The car did stop, the driver rolled down the window, and drove away again! Luckily, there were several people outside playing in the snow that witnessed it. One guy even got pictures.

-Between Fri and Sat February 5-6, it snowed 25-30 inches. I've never seen so much snow in my life - total! It was beautiful. When I got up Saturday morning, it was already up to my knees, and it hadn't stopped snowing. It was fun because I never lost power, most everyone I know lives within walking distance, and my landlord shoveled my walkway.






-On top of the record amount of snow from Saturday, it snowed 7-10 more inches Tuesday night. I haven't been to school since Friday.

-While it was still snowing this morning, I lost my keys. I had taken Duncan out, and when I reached for my keys to let myself back in the apt, they were not there. The best I can figure is that when I pulled a bag out of my pocket, my keys fell on the ground. This normally would have been noticed, but since there was a lot of snow on the ground with more coming, they must have landed softly. Needless to say, I still haven't found them. Luckily, my landlord lives upstairs, so he was able to let me back in.

I'm not sure I can take much more excitement while trying to survive this semester. I've had some good study time this week, but one can only take so much. I just hope this doesn't affect my spring break...

Oops...

Please forgive me, I am WAY overdue on a post. I started grad school 2.5 months ago, and I feel like it's been non-stop since then. In fact, I should be studying at this moment, but a whole weekend of studying can really drain you. Anyways, let me give a brief update on past couple of months.

Amanda and Jace came to visit at the end of August. Amanda hadn't been to DC since 1990, and this was (obviously) Jace's first trip (and first plane ride!). Needless to say, we had a full schedule for the few days they were here. On the first day, we saw the National Mall, the Capitol, Washington Monument, American History Museum, and National Archives. Jace was really excited about seeing Paul "Bear" Bryant's football from his 315th win (a 28-17 victory over Auburn). The next day we went to the National Zoo, and while he napped through a good portion of it, he eventually woke up bright-eyed and excited to see all of the animals. After the zoo, we went to Georgetown to walk around campus a little. Since Ronald Reagan National Airport is only about 5 miles or so from DC, airplanes fly overhead all of the time. Well, this little boy LOVED the airplanes, and pointed out each and every one. On Saturday, we headed to the Museum of Natural History and Air and Space Museum. Jace enjoyed looking at the big animals and really loved touching the planes. His favorite place of all though turned out to be the Botanic Gardens. Outside they have a garden area where kids can dig and plants seeds, and they have 3 big vats of water with fountains. Jace had a blast running from vat to vat, splashing everytime. He must've played there for over 30 min and would've played more if we hadn't made him leave. On their last day, we went to the WWII monument and the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials.

It was an absolute blast having them here, and I hated leaving them at the airport!

Fear Itself

I feel like, for the most part, I'm a pretty calm and laid-back person. I don't think about danger as much as my mom and grandmothers feel that I should. I mean, I don't do stupid things like walk around by myself in the middle of the night in downtown DC, but I'll make solo journeys from one country to another without thinking twice.

Friday night/early Saturday morning, I was in deep REM sleep when I was jolted out of bed by the loudest house-shaking blast you've ever heard. The first thing I thought was, "Someone's bombed the Capitol!" Why this was my first thought, I have no idea, but I was poised and ready leave all my earthly possessions behind, grab Duncan, and hop on the evacuation bus (more on that later). However, as the early morning brain haze and adrenalin rush equalized, I realized it was just a thunderstorm. Being from the South where we live and breathe summer thunderstorms, it should've been just another stormy night. But I guess somewhere in my subconscious lies this fear, especially since I'm only a stone's throw away from the Capitol.

I hope this doesn't serve to stir my mother's fears. I really do feel safe here. There's an absurdly small ratio of police to citizens, and they sure are not wasting their time giving out tickets (see here). I live just a couple of blocks from a police station, and a police car drives up my street at least every 10-20 min at night. There's also an emergency broadcast bus that does its test every Sunday (Duncan hates it), and I suppose if there were a true emergency, you're supposed to get on the bus to evacuate. I just thought it was funny that the bombing thought was the first thing that popped into my head. At least you know I'm prepared. :)

Crime, Punishment, Ducks, and Poe

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a $6 after 6 (regularly $20) deal for DC residents at the Museum for Crime and Punishment, so C and I decided to take advantage. They have Al Capone's and Bonnie and Clyde's cars, old punishment devices, bios on famous most wanted people, CSI labs, etc. A few pics:


Heat sensitive photo


Bonnie and Clyde's car


Don't think I would've made it in the stocks


Most Wanted


Don't mess with the law


#2 definitely did it

This past weekend, my friend Katie was visiting some friends in Baltimore, so she decided to come visit me, too! She was my first visitor, so it was a test of my skills as a DC tour guide. Not sure how I did, but we had fun. We walked went to Dupont Circle, ate at Lauriol Plaza (my favorite Mexican in the city), visited the Smithsonian Castle, hung out on the Georgetown waterfront, and rode the DC Duck. The Ducks are WWII vehicles that can go on land or water. We got a pretty interesting tour around the city and then floated down the Potomac. They even gave us duck bill quackers (which the 20 children on the tour loved). We ended her visit in Baltimore. She showed me around her city with some food in Little Italy, Charm City Cakes (which will not allow visitors or let you see in the windows), Lexington Market, and Edgar Allen Poe's grave. We fit a lot into 2 short days, and it was great seeing a familiar face!


Capt. Bucky getting ready to take us into the water


Katie on the Potomac


With my quacker


In Baltimore


Edgar Allan Poe's grave

Football is in the Air

Those things in the picture are what the UPS man brought to my house yesterday. Tickets - 4 sets of beautiful tickets. I couldn't help but get excited. In one month from today, the Crimson Tide will be back on the field in Atlanta to take on Va Tech. I've been preparing myself today by watching highlights from last season - gives me chills.

Sadly, I'm also having to remind myself that I won't be using most of those tickets. I knew that was part of the deal when I moved, but it still hurts. The Tuscaloosa sun, rows of Crimson clad fans, houndstooth, "Yea, Alabama," sea of tailgaters, touchdowns, Eli Gold, and the greatest tradition in college football....sigh...my favorite time of year.

I've gone to at least one game every season for the past 10 years, and I'm not stopping now. I'll make it to at least one. (Unless I make friends with someone with a private plane that can fly me into Tuscaloosa every Saturday...a girl can only dream...) There's a large group of alumni in the DC area, so I'll be spending my Saturdays with them, cheering on the Tide. Roll Tide Roll!!

Weekend Pics

The Cake

Brunch

Truffles

Making a Baby Book

Rebecca, Kathryn, and me

La Paz's white queso!

Katie, Rebekah, and me