The Eternal Optimist

It felt like I spent most of this past week working. I guess that’s the case every week, but we were finishing the redesign for our paper, so it was especially busy and crazy.

However, I found a little time for fun. The paper had a happy hour Thursday evening for the launch of the redesign, so I spent some time with co-workers and also met some new folks.

Friday we celebrated the production of the first redesigned paper with some drinks after work. Then, a friend and I capped off the night with some Qdoba tacos and queso. (I have an addiction to that queso.)

Saturday morning was the D.C. Servathon so I volunteered with a group from my company. We worked at a charter preschool in the District doing spring cleaning and painting. Then we went out for some cheap food and drinks courtesy of the Servathon.

And Saturday night, my plans to see a Filmfest D.C. movie were thwarted by my inability to buy tickets in advance. So a friend and I saw “Date Night” and grabbed a cocktail instead.

Today I’m missing out on some great bands playing on the National Mall for Earth Day. But if I didn’t stay home and do laundry, I wouldn’t have anything left to wear this week. I’m trying to make up for my day at home by FINALLY tackling my first attempt at homemade pizza with dough from scratch. I got the pizza stone for Christmas so it has only taken me … four months to finally give this a try. (Yikes!)

Sunday

We braved the crowds at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for Easter Mass. Then, we had brunch at Eggspectation in Silver Spring.

 Instead of heading to the heart of D.C., we drove to the National Arboretum. (The weather was perfect the entire weekend, so we did lots of outdoor activities.) We saw the old columns from the Capitol, plus some plants and more cherry trees. Then we drove to National Harbor, where we discovered a Peeps store. Mom is the only one of us who enjoys the stale marshmallowy Easter candy, so we took about 100 pictures of her in the store.

We took the long route back to Silver Spring via the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia.

See more photos from the visit in my Spring Album.

Saturday
We were very touristy and took the Old Town Trolley Tour of D.C. We only did part of the tour, focusing on getting up to the National Cathedral, where we stopped to explore, and then riding back down through Embassy Row and visiting Georgetown.

We had Five Guys burgers and fries for lunch in Georgetown, walked around more and, of course, did some shopping.

That night we had reservations at Ray’s The Classics, a highly regarded steak restaurant in Silver Spring. We all loved our food (and I even have leftovers for a couple days).

See more photos from the visit in my Spring Album.

My parents visited for Easter and for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. I dragged them all over the area to see some of the sights. I don’t have any better way to break this up than by day, even though I know that’s not very exciting. However, I’m going to break it up into separate posts so it will continue post while I start my next set of tourist adventures in the next few days.

Thursday
When they got to D.C., they stopped at my office for a tour of the lovely place. They also happened to hit there at the same time as we were having a retirement party for a co-worker at the end of the day, so there was pretty much no work going on and there were plenty of treats.

Then, we went to the Holy Thursday service at my church in Silver Spring. The priests tend to be long-winded. And it was Holy Thursday. And it was a multilingual service. So, two hours later we finished and headed to Quarry House, Silver Spring’s famous dive bar, for some beer, burgers and tater tots with Old Bay. (Dad had never heard of Old Bay before.)

Friday
We headed straight to the Tidal Basin in hopes of seeing the blossoms before the weekend crowds hit. A stroll around the basin, stops at the Jefferson Memorial and FDR Memorial, and lots of photos.

Next, we walked across the Potomac to Arlington National Cemetery, where we gladly hopped on a tram to explore that area. We saw the Kennedy family graves as well as the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We stopped at the National Gallery of Art briefly and did a quick tour of a few of the galleries including a large dose of early Italian (that is, basically all religious) paintings for Good Friday. Then, most of the museums were closing so we stopped at the American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery (one of the few open till 7 p.m.) before heading to get some food at Vapiano. My dad decided he loved the place – and found out they are opening locations in Dallas and Chicago soon. (And, the Italian restaurant and bar was founded in Germany.)

See more photos from the visit in my Spring Album.

When I was moving to D.C. a year ago (the anniversary of my moving date was March 14) and realized I couldn’t afford more than a studio apartment if I wanted to live alone, I was disappointed. I had a fairly roomy, 690-square-foot one-bedroom apartment in St. Louis. My bedroom was big. I had a deck. My living room had a fireplace. I had a large walk-in closet that served as storage and an office. And I knew I owned a lot of STUFF. So the thought of squeezing me, my two cats and all my belongings into a studio was daunting.
 
But, a year later, I’m very happy with my small apartment. (And it’s a studio, but it’s definitely not the smallest studio out there.) Sure, sometimes I wish it were a little bigger. That’s really only when I have out-of-town visitors and feel bad that they’re crammed onto my futon, which is a few feet from my bed, with cats running over them. Or when I want to have friends over and realize my living room furniture consists of only a couch — and that it’s a little weird that my bed is in the same room if people are coming over to party. Or when I’m spending all day cooking and baking and run out of counter space very quickly. It takes a little creativity to do intense kitchen projects.

However, most of the time it’s just me (and the cats). And a studio is actually a great size. Why?

1. It’s easy to clean. I have two cats. They shed a lot. So I vacuum a lot, but it’s easier to vacuum a small space than a larger one
2. It encourages me to clear clutter. When you only have 515 square feet, you have an incentive to keep things picked up because you want every inch of usable and clean space you can get. Plus, everything is only a few steps away from where it belongs. I don’t have to go up and down stairs to put something away. The farthest I have to walk is about 20 feet (that’s the longest length of the apartment and would involve bringing something from the door to the opposite window), so it’s hard to make an argument for not putting my coat in the closet or my groceries in the “pantry.”
3. It encourages me not to buy things. I have too much STUFF. My parents and friends who helped with my move to D.C. can attest to that. I have no clue how I managed to fit an entire moving truck of stuff into this apartment. (This is where organization helps, I think. I use my space efficiently.) But since I’ve been here, I believe I’ve cut down on the STUFF I own. It’s easier to decide to get rid of things when you realize you don’t have room for them. And it’s easier to convince myself to NOT buy things when I know I have no place to put them. In the end, I didn’t need them anyway.
4. I can see the TV from my bed. This is a big deal because I’ve never had a TV in my bedroom. The only other time I had this luxury was in my college dorm room. But it’s nice for those times that college basketball goes past midnight (stupid Eastern time zone!) to be able to crawl into bed and still have a perfect view of the TV.
5. I like having a small kitchen. I’m sure I would enjoy having a huge, state-of-the-art kitchen as well. But a small kitchen has its benefits. I noted the drawbacks (mostly just lack of counter space) above. But I had a small kitchen in St. Louis also, and I like that. Everything is within arm’s reach of where I’m standing. I can pull out a skillet, stand up and set it on the stove, swivel to the other counter to grab a spatula, swivel a few more degrees to pull eggs from the refrigerator, etc.