Washington, D.C.

I love to travel, mostly because I love to absorb the energy of new places, take in new things and ideas, and shirk usual routines and household responsibilities. When Lover told me that he had a business meeting in Washington, D.C., I was instantly jealous. It's one of my favorite cities to visit, with such a wealth of museums and history.

Well, I got to go! I met him last Monday evening, and we went for a walk along the Mall. I love to see the memorials lit up at night. I'm generally not sentimental about political and military history, and I despise war and violence. However, I love the memorials, because they become something positive. It's art uniting citizens. These are tools for teaching future generations about the effect of certain founding fathers, or the toll of war. When I look at the US memorials, I know memorials stand in other countries for those same wars. I know other people stand before them, like me. I know that things got to a point where diplomacy was either ignored or refused, and violence was used (or someone decided Germany wasn't enough for them and got a little big for their britches...). I know people who didn't necessarily want to serve, served. I know families suffered on both sides.


On Tuesday, we walked around the Air and Space Museum, The American Craft Museum, The National Gallery, and the International Spy Museum. At the Gallery, I saw a few favorites pieces:

 

 I love the color and movement within a Georgia O'Keefe. As for Gauguin, what a life! Beach living, half-naked women, and painting. Too bad he died of syphilis.

Also, the cherry blossoms were right at the precipice of explosive beauty. 

Even if it's just to cozy up with a friend at their house, sometimes it's nice to get out of our usual environment and take a breather in fresh air. Going anywhere this spring?

Weekly Wrap-Up 2 of March

Spring breeze -
the pine on the ridge
whispers it

The nights are cold, but the days are full of sunshine and the crocus are showing their colors in the front yard. Spring has finally touched upon New England.


Highlights of the past week or two include:

Seed starting! I filled up a 72 cell tray with peppers both hot and sweet, tomatoes large and small, and onions and leeks. I scratched in some worm castings from the vermicomposter, placed them on a heat mat, and beneath a grow light. This was Thursday night. Saturday night, I was ever so surprised and pleased!

Mini Vacation! Lover had a business meeting in Washington, D.C. I took the train down to meet him Monday night. We walked around the Mall to see the memorials lit up at night. On Tuesday, we visited the American Craft Museum, the Air and Space Museum, The National Gallery (both the West Wing and the East Wing), and the International Spy Museum.

New discovery. I was absolutely thrilled to discover a very chic craft store called "Make & Mingle" in the town of Fairfield. You can check this store out before a movie at the Fairfield theater, and then hit up Las Vetas for coffee. All in one area!

Maw. There's still an algae problem in the goldfish tank. I didn't want to add one more animal to the small aquarium, but I also don't want to use a chemical algae-cide. So, I got an algae-eating plecostomus named "Maw." We have an albino version in the other tank named "Valve" and he has really kept it spotless! Maw looks like the pic below.

Outliers. I read Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" on the train traveling to DC. I would strongly recommend it to anyone! It dispels the compelling American myth of the self-made man or woman, and portrays how no one is made successful without both practice and opportunity. It also touches on many other topics, including education and entitlement..

All in all, it's been a pretty good week. Next week we have our kick-off for Bridgeport Beautifies, a trip to Cape Cod, and to see "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo."