Quick & Delish

It's a comfort to know, When you're singing the hit-the-road blues, That anywhere else you could possibly go after New York would be... a pleasure cruise
I went to NY this weekend, and it was so dead. I'm not even kidding. Star, star, star, love, love, love... The trusty DC2NY bus delivered us (RL, DW and me) safely and soundly in Popsicle-like formation. It was chilly, but this non-profit girl likes her non-profit ride. Giddy-up.

To yoga, to yogurt, to rice and beans and cheese
After checkin' in with the dream team (AG3 and DF), we knew what we had to do... a little comfort food and it was off to the 'berry. So dead. So, so dead. Words cannot express the excitement, but the pinkberry theme song accurately captures my sentiments.

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes, How Do You Measure The Life Of A Woman Or A Man?
525,600 minutes later... I was ready for dinner and RENT. AG3 lived up to his word and ordered the house drink... twice. DF befriended the six-year-old annoyance at the table next to us, and DW described Who Decides? (naturally, I mean - what else would one discuss over dinner, other than abortion?)... two ginger mojitos and one in-depth M&M conversation later, and I was ready for Anthony and Adam.

In The Evening I've Got To Roam, Can't Sleep In The City Of Neon And Chrome, Feels Too Damn Much Like Home When The Spanish Babies Cryyyyyyyy
What can I even say about the RENT experience that could possibly do it justice? My guess is nothing. So I won't even try. Adam was amazing, Anthony and I (I'm convinced) shared a v. meaningful four-second eye lock in which I seized the opportunity to convey my deepest and darkest devotion. I think he got the message, but there's a small chance my tear-streaked face came across as a bit... needy. Whoops.

Let's go. This lot is full of mother-f*cking artists.
So... the autograph collection operation wasn't as seamless as previously planned, but DW is nothing if not determined, and I make an eager sidekick. After high-fiving ED and RL, we bid our slightly-less deranged and decidedly more sensible friends adieu and weaseled our way into the thick of things. Hours later, we emerged VICTORIOUS... with signatures, pictures, and goofy smiles. Whatever, I had fun.

We raise our glass, you bet your ass to... La Vie Boheme
After a quick phone call to the Durham-bound LM, we went to meet-up with the boys. DF and AG3 agreed that DW's grade was a decidedly promising B+. She was stoked. I was ready for some RENT-rehashing and wine drinking and DF and AG3 easily obliged. Many glasses of wine later, I met wii.

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii: I only get two turns? That's bulls*it.
AG3 and I went home while DF and DW had a mean girls pow-wow (I know it may look like I was being like a bitch, but that's only because I was acting like a bitch) over pizza. In that time, I had two (three? ten?) more glasses of wine and learned two things: bowling is much more fun with a wii (but apparently, you're turn doesn't end when all the pins are down like I originally thought, but rather after two-turns), and I love my best. Such a good friend, DF.

And evil takes a human form in Regina George.
I woke up having slept a measly 3.5 hours. I needed coffee, a nap, a newspaper, and a new attitude. After taking off some pre-bloody mary aggression on DW, I rebounded quickly for my breakfast sliders. Delish.

"I'm Forbidden To Produce Milk. In Cyberland, We Only Drink Diet Coke."
Here's what happened next... shopping, walking, subway-riding, and covert-purse buying. Ask DW all about it. I obviously stocked up on unnecessary Pearl River products to pile up in my empty kitchen (who cooks in a kitchen? not I!) cabinets. RL waited in a three-hour line for the facilities and I introduced AG3 to the orange blossom iced tea. I'm a good friend. Sadly for DF, there was no new Starbucks literature to take home and read. Sad.

Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care?
So yeah, I had more pinkberry... green tea this time. And it was major. And I don't care if you think that's lame... take the dang picture and make sure you get 'pinkberry' in it, ok? While kicking-back in the park across the street from the 'berry, we saw a parade (I hate parades) and our first celebrity sighting: Perry! Britney's ex-manny. Super fun. He must love mean girls, because LM and RZ saw him in New Orleans and broke the cover story. True fact. RL had no idea who we were talking about...

A Dismal D-
Then we had to go home. And that sucked because our bus driver was mean, she made me watch a Beyonce movie (vom), we weren't allowed to eat in the bus (whatevs, I broke that rule), and I was nauseous the entire ride home... so I give this portion of the trip a Dismal D- (just like our nation's grade).

THE END
(Thanks, boys, for being super-fun-party-people. It was major.)

New York : DEAD

Don't act like you know what "DEAD" means, because you don't. I don't even know what it means. All I know is, I'll be saying it for the next couple of months.

As you may have gathered from the pinkberry post, I was in NY this weekend. Tragically, I hadn't been since April of last year. Don't worry though, DF and I worked on a plan and the situation has been rectified.

I'm going to try and cover all the gloriousness in one post, and I'm going to try and bogart someone else's recapping technique... so do let me know what you think. Hopefully it'll be up by the end of today.

suffocation, no breathing

It's so dang hot in DC that I might have to take an unscheduled leave and retreat to someplace air conditioned and fun. Like Disney World.

Today's DCist says:

To be honest, Washington, it's taking everything we've got not to put up eight or nine posts today just indulging in our need to whine about how nasty hot it is outside. Apparently the humidity today and tomorrow is going to be so intense, it could feel like it's 105 degrees. Can we all agree that this is not OK? OK. Thanks. We'll move on to the headlines then, and by "move on" we don't of course mean that we'll be physically moving at all, because that might cause us all to pass out from heat exhaustion. Oh, and the National Weather Service has issued heat advisories until 8 p.m. in Maryland, in Northern Virginia all buses are free, and in D.C. the only change we've heard about so far is the traditional closing of the DMV Inspection Station at 1 p.m.

Sick!

So take it easy, my district-living friends, and drink plenty of wine... erm, water.

Iced Coffee

Thanks to a super-charged (and incredibly useful) Caribou gift certificate (thanks ladies), I've been over indulging in one of my few favorite things about this season we call summer: the iced coffee.

"BUT WAIT," you proclaim, "I've seen you drink said coffee in the wintertime... what gives?"

First of all, no you haven't. What you've seen is a caramel, skim, latte derivative. It's totes different.

Second of all, mind your business... this blogpost is about me, not you.

Anyway, the iced coffee is one of the very few things that gives me relief during the wet, hot, American DC summers. The other things are:

1. free air conditioning2. fenwick island, delaware
3. snoasis snoballs

(You know, I wish it wasn't so hard to stay on-topic.)

Okay, so, my job requires me to read a lot of blogs, and that works out well for me because, well, I read a lot of blogs. One of the non-work related blogs that I throw in the mix for a li'l something different is the Splendora blog. And when I read it the other day, I learned a li'l trick about iced coffee that has dramatically affected the way I enjoy my treat: the coffee ice cube:

...A friend of mine recently showed me the way with coffee ice cubes. Brew a nice big pot of coffee at night, let it sit for an hour or so to cool off, and then fill up 2-3 ice cube trays with the coffee. Brew another pot immediately afterwards and stick it in the fridge overnight. The next morning wake up and make your iced coffee with the coffee cubes and be prepared for an iced coffee with not only a bolder taste but that will jolt you through your day like none other...

Simple, right? I agree. And it makes all the difference in the world. I plan on seeing if this translates to other favorites... mojitos, margaritas, bloody marys, mimosas, etc. (We tried the pre-made, frozen, slushy margarita at our fabulous beach bonfire and the results were magical, so I have high hopes.)