From Kelly:
Where to begin? I guess I could sum up the trip by saying that it was awesome, but that would be a big, undescriptive understatement. SO, I guess I'll just tell you what happened. . .
Mike and I arrived late on Friday, dropped off our stuff with Mikey's doorman (who almost didn't let us in because of a mix up with the admit cards), and headed down to meet up with the rest of our friends at an "Inaugural Throwdown" party at an art gallery downtown. This was a really fun place to be because everyone was so excited to get the weekend started. They had an Obama life-size cut out and we had a lot of fun posing for pictures.
Saturday we took it pretty easy-- went for lunch near Nathan and Emily's apartment and then went downtown to a South American place where we tried some plantain chips and guacamole, which were excellent. We also looked around at some of the historic sites and had cupcakes. On Saturday night we went out to a cute bar in Arlington and had a pretty low-key day overall-- mainly just catching up and talking about the night before.
On Sunday, we headed downtown to go to the Lincoln Memorial for the HBO We Are One concert. Before the concert I needed to go pick up the inauguration tickets that Tony had won from Nancy Pelosi. When I got to the office it was surprisingly calm and easy to get the tickets. There was a whole spread of refreshments and all I had to do was show them my ID and give them Tony's name and we were in! It was great! I felt so lucky to be one of the few people who would have a ticket to the actual inuguration and was so happy Tony had chosen to take me with him!
After we got the tickets, Mike and I headed down to the concert. It was a pretty fun walk actually because we got to get our first real glimpse of all the people who had gathered for the inauguration-- most of them African America. There were vendors lining the streets selling every type of tacky, busy item you could think of-- buttons, posters, hats, gloves, earrings, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. It was truly American capitalism at it's finest. . .or tackiest. Every once in awhile a motorcade would go by and everyone would stop to watch it, even though you couldn't see through any of the windows.
When we got to the concert, our friends had saved us a spot. The concert was so amazing. All of the performers were so great and there were so many big names that you never knew who was going to be up next. It was like one big surprise the whole time. I thought the best performer was John Cougar Melloncamp and I was most excited to see Steve Carrell as a speaker. I guess you can watch the concert for free if you go to HBO's website. The concert was also really fun because everyone was so happy and upbeat eventhough it was really cold outside. One woman came by wearing a quilt she had made and was having everyone sign it. During one of the songs, a group of guys next to us put their arms around each other and were singing together. During another song, a group of random people formed a big ring and were singing and hugging. One guy was so excited when Beyonce came on that he was jumping around and screaming like a teenage girl. When they played "lean on me", the spirit of comradery continued as everyone danced and sang together. It really was an amazing experience.
After the concert, we fought the crowds of traffic to a bar north of Georgetown where we played in a flip cup tournament. This was the most disorganized, crowded event I'd ever been to and both me and Emily were getting so frustrated with the whole thing that we were ready to leave after the first 10 minutes. Unfortunately for Tony, he met us there straight from the airport and happened to catch me in a very cranky mood-- not a very warm reception for my ticket benefactor. But, we soon gave up on trying to participate in the tournament and decided to just play against each other and had a lot more fun. I cheered up quickly and was much happier. I guess I don't play well with others. :)
Monday was another somewhat relaxing day. Emily and I went to lunch and then got manis/pedis while Tony, Beth and Mike went to the Spy Museum. After I met up with them, we went to the portrait gallery and I saw one of my favorite pictures, which I had seen before, but still strikes me. It's the picture of LBJ being inaugurated with Jackie standing next to him, just two hours after JFK was killed. It's just such full of such emotion and history and humanity-- i love it.
Monday night most of our group went to the South Carolina inaugural ball. Tony, Mike, me, and Beth went to get drinks downtown and then went to dinner at this awesome place called Central. I had steak au poivre with onion carbonara that was just melt in your mouth good. We also had some ceviche that was delightful. The BEST part, though, was a banana split that I had for dessert. It was made with homemade ice cream and the bananas were all doctored up with caramel and chocolate and almonds. . . YUM!!!
On Tuesday, the real fun began. . . EARLY! Tony woke me up at 5:30am (I had talked him down from waking me up at 4am, though I basically laid awake starting at 3:30am because I was so worried about being late!) We walked down to the Metro station and got some snacks at the CVS. After we loaded up on yummies, we went down to the metro, not sure what to expect. The train was not as crowded as it could have been, though, and after one stop enough people got off that we even got seats. When we arrived downtown, we walked toward the capitol--hoping for some direction--but no direction ever came. We were armed with a map of where we were supposed to go and Tony's blackberry, so we thought we'd be in good shape. Soon, though, we were stuck in gridlock-- a group of people so smashed together you hardly had to hold yourself up and your feet didn't have to touch the ground for you to stay upright. It didn't take us long to realize that we had to get out of this mess. Then, some bike police came through and the crowd moved out of the way, so we followed behind and wiggled our way out. Freedom never felt so good! We walked around a different way, found the gates, stood in line, and eventually made it in. It turned out that we'd made pretty good time and we got a spot in our section that was only about 5-7 people deep.
During the inauguration, we had a great spot and it was nice to stand and talk to the people around us-- everyone was so excited and so happy to be there. A woman next to me was talking to her son in Iraq and had a man near us take all of our pictures so her son would be able to see all the people she'd met. It really was amazing how everyone was so friendly and happy all weekend long. There were some famous people in the crowd and, though I didn't really see them, I am going to count it since Tony did :) Here's the list (that I can think of right now): Tim Robbins, Jesse Jackson, Mariah Carey, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Wyclef, Common, etc. Unfortunately, I was the shortest person there it seemed like and I couldn't see very well over the people around us. I could hear everything well, though, and when the program started it was amazing-- we said the Lord's prayer with millions of other people and listened to some amazing music and were present for the swearing in of the first African American president!! Pretty cool!! The scariest part, though, was that I didn't hear Obama finish the oath and all the sudden there were cannons going off and I didn't know why! Needless to say, I was a bit startled :)
After the inauguration we figured we'd better start heading home because who knew how long it would take and I had a hair appointment :) We knew there was no way the metro would be feasible, so we decided to just walk. When we were still near the capital, Bush's helicopter flew away. Were standing right under him when they took off. We waved goodbye. The distance to Nate and Emily's was about 4 miles, so not too bad. Along the way we tried to get a drink at Starbucks, but it took us three tries to find on that didn't have a line out the door. When we finally did get our drinks, we found a table and sat down for the first time in about 7 hours. It felt great! By the time we made it to Georgetown our resolve had worn off a bit (it was FREEZING), so we saw an empty cab and decided to take advantage.
When we got back to the apartment, we talked with Nathan and Emily a bit about their experience and then I started getting ready for the ball. I had a hair appt. with Emily's sister who gave me an awesome updo for the ball! I returned from the salon, finished getting ready and we were off.
The ball we attended was called the Garden State Inaugural Gala and was held at the Washington Court Hotel. The cab could only get as close as about six blocks away because of all the street closures and then we walked the rest of the way. It was ten degrees out and those were the coldest blocks I think I've ever walked! I seriously thought my legs (which were bare because I was wearing my ball gown) would be blue by the time we arrived.
But, when we arrived at the hotel, all was well. The hotel was gorgeous and the ball was held downstairs in eight different rooms with bars and food spread all around. The main bar was made of ice! When we arrived we were given casino "money" and then we headed straight for the food (We'd been up since 5:30 and hadn't had anything to eat). Tony and I spent the rest of the night playing casino games (roulette and blackjack), dancing (they had a Bruce Springstein cover band that was actually really good), and talking. After the ball, we (barely) got our coats back from coat check and grabbed our goodie bags (filled with an engraved frame and a Spongebob digital thermometer-- random). On the cab ride home we were sorry the night was over, but I don't think it took me longer than 2 minutes to fall asleep when my head hit the couch. It had been a long day!
At the airport the next day, I was glad that I'd decided to leave early. The lines were INSANE- as in the kind of lines that had warranted news crews being dispatched. Of course the genius airline I'd chosen (US Airways) had ONE counter open and so the line snaked halfway around the terminal. They also had some employees there who clearly didn't usually work there and I had to explain to two of them how to do their jobs. It was a spectacle for sure. I was so out of it, though, from being totally sleep deprived that I just put on my earphones and zoned out. In fact, that's how I spent most of the day-- listening to music, reading the Washington Post, and trying to drown out everyone talking about how annoyed they were by the lines. It was kind of nice to be in my own little world for the day. . .
So, all in all I would say it was an awesome weekend. It would have been amazing just to go to the concert, it would have been amazing just to go to the inauguration, it would have been amazing just to go to a ball, it would have been amazing just to spend the whole weekend with my best friends in the whole world. But, the fact that I got to do all these things in the span of just a few days? Well, that was something for which I am so thankful. I'm still smiling just thinking about it. :)
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Food, Fun, and Horrible Badness
From Mike:
Since Kelly already talked about my trip to DC, and since I can’t tell you the details of the trip, lest I be forced to kill you, I will talk about things that are decidedly less interesting. I apologize in advance. (and for that last run-on sentence…)
Ever since the first time I ordered Chili’s glorious Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The-Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing, Kelly has warned me that if I keep eating them, I’ll die of a heart attack. While it was probably true, I typically responded to this remark with a chuckle and a shrug of my shoulders as I gluttonously devoured it. Well, much to my displeasure, I read some distressing news today. Men’s Health Magazine has officially deemed this burger “The Worst Burger in America”. Yippee. Apparently this 20-syllabled delectable delight has 2,040 calories, 150g of fat (53g of them are saturated), and a whopping 4,900mg of sodium! That, my friends, is a heart attack served on a plate with delicious steak fries, and most likely preceded by a heaping basket of chips and salsa. I guess Kelly was right…I won’t be ordering that again any time soon. *sniffle*
Kelly and I leave tomorrow afternoon for a weekend of fun celebrating the inauguration of President Barack Obama! We’ll be meeting up with friends from DC, and our friend Tony is flying out from San Francisco too. After a very long string of emails, we finalized our itinerary for the weekend…and it goes a little bit like this: (actually, it goes exactly like this…)
Friday, January 16th:
10pm – Arrive in DC
11pm – Inaugural Throwdown Party in Chinatown
Saturday, January 17th:
12:30pm – Lunch with friends at Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street
6pm – Town Tavern Grand Opening
Sunday, January 18th:
9am – Official Welcoming Committee Event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
11am – Wander around the festivities at the National Mall
2:30pm – We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial
8pm – Flip Cup Tournament at the G&T Bar
Monday, January 19th:
9am – Driving Change: The Role of Activists during the Obama Administration (free breakfast!)
1pm – Political Forum at Howard University
4pm – JFK Center for the Performing Arts Millennium Stage
6pm – Free Concert with Aretha Franklin, Nuttin’ But Stringz & the Let Freedom Ring Choir
9:30pm – Dinner reservations at Central Michel Richard
12am – Meet friends at a bar
Tuesday, January 20th:
All Day – Inauguration!
12pm – Mike flies back to Denver all alone
8pm – Kelly and our friend Tony have dinner reservations at Café Atlantico
Wednesday, January 21st:
11am – Kelly flies back to Denver
So all in all, it’ll be a busy weekend, but an extremely fun and memorable one! We’re both excited to get out of Colorado and enjoy the company of friends for a few days.
If you were wondering what the horrible badness was, it wasn’t the news about the burger (although that was very disheartening), it’s the fact that I’m getting my wisdom teeth out next Thursday! There’s not much to say here, except that it’s probably going to suck. Oh, and feel free to visit while I’m stuck at home, and hopped up on pain meds, that weekend…I’ll be on a steady diet of soft foods, so feel free to bring me jello and mashed potatoes! ;) Just kidding…but seriously…Inta Juice smoothies are delicious. Especially their Sunset Beach flavor.
That’s it for now. I hope you’re all having a great week! Until next time...
Since Kelly already talked about my trip to DC, and since I can’t tell you the details of the trip, lest I be forced to kill you, I will talk about things that are decidedly less interesting. I apologize in advance. (and for that last run-on sentence…)
Ever since the first time I ordered Chili’s glorious Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The-Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing, Kelly has warned me that if I keep eating them, I’ll die of a heart attack. While it was probably true, I typically responded to this remark with a chuckle and a shrug of my shoulders as I gluttonously devoured it. Well, much to my displeasure, I read some distressing news today. Men’s Health Magazine has officially deemed this burger “The Worst Burger in America”. Yippee. Apparently this 20-syllabled delectable delight has 2,040 calories, 150g of fat (53g of them are saturated), and a whopping 4,900mg of sodium! That, my friends, is a heart attack served on a plate with delicious steak fries, and most likely preceded by a heaping basket of chips and salsa. I guess Kelly was right…I won’t be ordering that again any time soon. *sniffle*
Kelly and I leave tomorrow afternoon for a weekend of fun celebrating the inauguration of President Barack Obama! We’ll be meeting up with friends from DC, and our friend Tony is flying out from San Francisco too. After a very long string of emails, we finalized our itinerary for the weekend…and it goes a little bit like this: (actually, it goes exactly like this…)
Friday, January 16th:
10pm – Arrive in DC
11pm – Inaugural Throwdown Party in Chinatown
Saturday, January 17th:
12:30pm – Lunch with friends at Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street
6pm – Town Tavern Grand Opening
Sunday, January 18th:
9am – Official Welcoming Committee Event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
11am – Wander around the festivities at the National Mall
2:30pm – We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial
8pm – Flip Cup Tournament at the G&T Bar
Monday, January 19th:
9am – Driving Change: The Role of Activists during the Obama Administration (free breakfast!)
1pm – Political Forum at Howard University
4pm – JFK Center for the Performing Arts Millennium Stage
6pm – Free Concert with Aretha Franklin, Nuttin’ But Stringz & the Let Freedom Ring Choir
9:30pm – Dinner reservations at Central Michel Richard
12am – Meet friends at a bar
Tuesday, January 20th:
All Day – Inauguration!
12pm – Mike flies back to Denver all alone
8pm – Kelly and our friend Tony have dinner reservations at Café Atlantico
Wednesday, January 21st:
11am – Kelly flies back to Denver
So all in all, it’ll be a busy weekend, but an extremely fun and memorable one! We’re both excited to get out of Colorado and enjoy the company of friends for a few days.
If you were wondering what the horrible badness was, it wasn’t the news about the burger (although that was very disheartening), it’s the fact that I’m getting my wisdom teeth out next Thursday! There’s not much to say here, except that it’s probably going to suck. Oh, and feel free to visit while I’m stuck at home, and hopped up on pain meds, that weekend…I’ll be on a steady diet of soft foods, so feel free to bring me jello and mashed potatoes! ;) Just kidding…but seriously…Inta Juice smoothies are delicious. Especially their Sunset Beach flavor.
That’s it for now. I hope you’re all having a great week! Until next time...
Saturday, January 10, 2009
The Cheese Stands Alone
From Kelly:
Well I guess this was about as regular a week as any. It's kind of nice to be back to normal after the holidays, as much fun as it was to have a few days off from work.
Mike was out of town the later part of the week. He's starting a new audit, which usually means some time in DC. He has meetings at the Pentagon while he is there though, so I think that's pretty cool :) He also met up with Mike P and Emma for dinner while he was in town, which makes the trip a little more pleasant than just spending all his time with his coworkers.
While Mike was gone, I did my best to distract myself and keep busy. On Wednesday night I started my new running plan at the rec center. I'm going to try to build up to being able to run three miles. So far running even one mile would be a major accomplishment, so we'll see how long it takes me to make it to three! I also saw Yes Man on Wednesday night, which I thought was really cute and funny in a Jim Carrey sort of way.
Thursday I had Beth, Ashley and Matt over for dinner. It was fun to have friends around and we played a couple of games. Dinner didn't turn out so well, though, so next time I'll try to remember to make something a little better planned. (I tried to make chicken and dumplings, but didn't allow enough time and the dumplings ended up really mushy. . . ).
Last night was another fun night because I had some girls over for a girls' night. Luckily, dinner turned out a lot better than the night before (I made tostadas). After dinner we watched a TOTALLY girly movie (House Bunny)and spent a lot of time talking, so that was great.
All in all, eventhough Mike had to be gone, it still turned out to be a good week. I even survived all the scary noises that kept me awake at night!
On Friday we leave for DC to join in the inauguration festivities and are excited for a fun weekend!!
Well I guess this was about as regular a week as any. It's kind of nice to be back to normal after the holidays, as much fun as it was to have a few days off from work.
Mike was out of town the later part of the week. He's starting a new audit, which usually means some time in DC. He has meetings at the Pentagon while he is there though, so I think that's pretty cool :) He also met up with Mike P and Emma for dinner while he was in town, which makes the trip a little more pleasant than just spending all his time with his coworkers.
While Mike was gone, I did my best to distract myself and keep busy. On Wednesday night I started my new running plan at the rec center. I'm going to try to build up to being able to run three miles. So far running even one mile would be a major accomplishment, so we'll see how long it takes me to make it to three! I also saw Yes Man on Wednesday night, which I thought was really cute and funny in a Jim Carrey sort of way.
Thursday I had Beth, Ashley and Matt over for dinner. It was fun to have friends around and we played a couple of games. Dinner didn't turn out so well, though, so next time I'll try to remember to make something a little better planned. (I tried to make chicken and dumplings, but didn't allow enough time and the dumplings ended up really mushy. . . ).
Last night was another fun night because I had some girls over for a girls' night. Luckily, dinner turned out a lot better than the night before (I made tostadas). After dinner we watched a TOTALLY girly movie (House Bunny)and spent a lot of time talking, so that was great.
All in all, eventhough Mike had to be gone, it still turned out to be a good week. I even survived all the scary noises that kept me awake at night!
On Friday we leave for DC to join in the inauguration festivities and are excited for a fun weekend!!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Ringing in the New Year
From Mike - Happy New Year! So much has happened over the past year, and Kelly and I are excited to continue our journey together in 2009. I originally was going to recap the events of 2008, but decided that this blog would be WAY too long for that. Anyway, here’s how we spent our remaining days in 2008, our first day in 2009, and how we plan to spend our first weekend of the new year:
Partially due to my being a bit under the weather, and partially due to our desire to save some money, we decided not to spend New Years Eve out on the town, but instead went to our friend Beth’s house for an evening of board games, Nintendo Wii, nachos, and brownie sundaes. (The selling points for Kelly were the nachos and brownie sundaes) We spent the evening in the company of a few close friends, and rang in the new year watching the fireworks over downtown Denver from a nearby park.
New Years Day is always a special time in my family as we all gather at my cousin’s house in Berthoud to celebrate the Japanese New Year. It’s a great time to visit with family members I haven’t seen in months, and embrace my gluttonous side as I gorge myself on mochi soup (or Ozoni), sushi, crab legs, steak, and most importantly, finger jello. We also have a tradition where my 92-year old grandmother pours each person three small mouthfuls of sake into a dish to drink for good luck in the new year.
This year was no different than years past as we ate, enjoyed each other’s company, ate, played games, ate, watched a few college bowl games, and ate. Afterwards, we stopped by Daniel and Heather’s house to chat and watch a movie, then came home to relax and play a competitive game of Tetris on the Wii. Kelly and I also celebrated our 10-month anniversary!
Today I’m spending my final day off with Daniel while poor Kelly is back at work. Tonight we’re going to the famed Casa Bonita for one last shindig with our Bostonian friend, Dave. Tomorrow night we’re going to Katey and Alex’s wedding in Denver, and Sunday I’m heading up to the mountains to go snowboarding at Copper Mountain for the first time this season.
All-in-all, this year has gotten off to a great start and we’re excited to see what God has in store for us over the next 12 months. Until next time, friends, God bless you!
Partially due to my being a bit under the weather, and partially due to our desire to save some money, we decided not to spend New Years Eve out on the town, but instead went to our friend Beth’s house for an evening of board games, Nintendo Wii, nachos, and brownie sundaes. (The selling points for Kelly were the nachos and brownie sundaes) We spent the evening in the company of a few close friends, and rang in the new year watching the fireworks over downtown Denver from a nearby park.
New Years Day is always a special time in my family as we all gather at my cousin’s house in Berthoud to celebrate the Japanese New Year. It’s a great time to visit with family members I haven’t seen in months, and embrace my gluttonous side as I gorge myself on mochi soup (or Ozoni), sushi, crab legs, steak, and most importantly, finger jello. We also have a tradition where my 92-year old grandmother pours each person three small mouthfuls of sake into a dish to drink for good luck in the new year.
This year was no different than years past as we ate, enjoyed each other’s company, ate, played games, ate, watched a few college bowl games, and ate. Afterwards, we stopped by Daniel and Heather’s house to chat and watch a movie, then came home to relax and play a competitive game of Tetris on the Wii. Kelly and I also celebrated our 10-month anniversary!
Today I’m spending my final day off with Daniel while poor Kelly is back at work. Tonight we’re going to the famed Casa Bonita for one last shindig with our Bostonian friend, Dave. Tomorrow night we’re going to Katey and Alex’s wedding in Denver, and Sunday I’m heading up to the mountains to go snowboarding at Copper Mountain for the first time this season.
All-in-all, this year has gotten off to a great start and we’re excited to see what God has in store for us over the next 12 months. Until next time, friends, God bless you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)