I have officially decided to retire this blog. Unfortunately, life is just too busy to keep up, as I am sure you have noticed from my tapered off posting. However, I am starting a new blog of just my photography things. I have been doing it on the side for people quite a bit lately, and decided to turn it into a separate blog. It is still a work in progress, so expect changes over the next few weeks. Click on the picture below to check it out...
Look at the cutest little thing you've ever seen! I was thrilled to be able to hold him for a while this evening. Mom, can I please have one? Pretty pretty please? 
Over Memorial Day Weekend, I went to Orcas Island with some friends. I had a little bit of time to myself at the start of the trip, and got rest that I so desperately needed. It was absolutely rejuvenating and beyond glorious.
Details from the ferry ride over
The rest of these are from the top of Mount Constitution. I got up early to go capture the sunrise from the top, but unfortunately the very tippy top of the mountain was enshrouded in clouds. While it was cool to stand in the middle of clouds, it wasn't all that great to take pictures. So, I played around with textures some more on some of the more foggy ones. 
This past weekend I spent some time taking pictures for one of my old coworkers, Laura. She and her boyfriend, Jameel, have the cutest daughter ever! They were lucky enough to have Jameel's daughter there as well, so they took some family shots as well. It helps to have such gorgeous people to photograph!
How can you not love chunky baby rolls!
I know I haven't been the best blogger lately. I don't have all that much time, nor do I want to spend every waking moment on a computer. Having to sacrifice the future of my eyes at work for 8 hours a day is enough, so blogging isn't exactly highest priority. However, I have had several people give me a good kick in the pants for not doing it, so I swear I'm going to catch up. I have at least 3 more posts waiting in the wings, just waiting to be typed. I'm not quite done editing all the photos, but I promise I'll throw more your way once they are finished.
In this post, I am going to just show you pictures of food that I have taken over the past month to share with you. I don't feel like typing out all of the recipes, and I know that if I wait to post these until I get that urge, these will never see the light of day. Thus, here's some lovely food porn for you. If you want a recipe, just ask.
The following two cookies are from the Macrina Bakery (based in Seattle) cookbook. My mom gave it to me last Christmas, and I have to say it is one of my favorite baking books. SUCH wonderful baked goods, and I've learned a lot from reading it. Yes, I actually sit down and read cookbooks cover to cover like a novel.
Chocolate Chip Cookies (I think I actually still prefer the Nestle Toll House recipe)
Molasses Ginger Cookies (these were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.)
Soba Noodle Bowl with a Garlic Ginger Asian Dressing
Gateau aux Noix (French Walnut Cake-- which I actually didn't like at all. It tasted like bread but had the texture of cake, which just grossed me out. Jess and her family liked it, so I guess it wasn't all that bad.)
One of my old coworkers asked me take some pictures at her daughter's birthday party a few weeks ago. These 8-9year olds were getting the spa treatment and needed to document how beautiful they were. Aren't they gorgeous!!!
From laughter that is. I just checked my Flickr account stats and saw that one of the referring sites was one that includes a naughty word in the title, but it was all about cilantro. I am dying laughing here, so if you want a good shock, just go to the site. You'll see one of my pictures being used in a place I never imagined even existed. The best part is definitely the caption. However, do not go to it if naughty words and innuendos offend you. It's clean enough if you're like me, but if you have a prudish slant, you might want to stay away.
Also, here's another one of my pics being used. Scroll all the way to the bottom for it. It's really not even a good picture either. Weird people at Seattle Beer News.
Because they have been bemoaning the fact that I haven't posted anything in a long time, I'm going to just send some eye candy your way. I have a lot of back editing to do of photos, and am feeling slightly overwhelmed with the amount I have to show you all. However, I'm taking a vacation soon and am hoping to catch up on it then. Until then, here's some pictures I took at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens a few weeks ago. I've used Photoshop for a while and am constantly figuring out more fun things to do. It's a really slow learning curve when you teach yourself, but it's also a huge sense of accomplishment when you do learn something new. Currently, I am working with textures and creating a "fine art" feel to pictures with them. Here are my first 4 attempts:
For Easter, my mom wanted a chocolate cake. I had been planning on making just a normal chocolate cake. Nothing fancy. However, I just couldn't do it. I had to experiment. So, this cake was born. I made a chocolate cake with stout beer, which actually just tasted like a richer version of chocolate cake. I also had to have two frostings-- Irish Cream for the inside and a plain old chocolate for the outside. The recipe below is a few different ones that I cobbled together for the final masterpiece. It definitely was a highly successful cake!
I found the Chocolate Stout Cake recipe at Smitten Kitchen, but she used the original one from Bon Appetit (which incidentally is a magazine my dad requested for his birthday-- I know, odd to me too).
Chocolate Stout Cake w/ Irish Cream & Chocolate Frosting
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
Cake prep:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray 2 8" round cake pans well. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter evenly split into prepared pans. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan, then turn cakes out onto a rack.
Once cool, carefully cut each cake in half horizontally. Lay one half on a cake stand and line remaining platter with parchment paper to keep it clean as you frost the cake. Spread a thin layer of the Irish Cream frosting and place another cake half on top. Repeat until remaining cake has been layered. Spread chocolate frosting on top and sides to complete the cake and sprinkle with cocoa nibs for garnish. Carefully remove parchment paper.
Irish Cream Frosting
2 sticks butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
4-5 cups confectioners' sugar
Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until creamy and smooth. Add the Bailey's and half of the confectioner's sugar and beat until smooth. Add the second half of the sugar and beat until smooth.
Chocolate Frosting
Coming soon... I can't find my notes on it at the moment and am too lazy to look for them. I promise I will get this up soon.
A couple weekends ago I took some pictures of the lovely Ali & Alex. Aren't they gorgeous girls!
I have done it! After numerous attempts to cook squash in a way that will actually make me like it, I have succeeded! This may seem silly, but to me it is a BIG event. Growing up, it was a most hated dish but once we started getting it in our boxes from The Farm, I decided that I must like it. Last fall I tried recipe after recipe in hopes that I would learn to love it. Sadly, I did not. I was rather upset this past week because the dreaded squash appeared randomly in our box again. I definitely did not want to deal with it, but decided that I might as well try to make the best of it. I hadn't yet tried grilling the squash and invented this dish around the concept because we also had a buttload of mangos from The Farm to use up.
This is one of my better creations, if I do say so myself. The mango salsa is a conglomeration of several different recipes. It is also delicious with tortilla chips and I can imagine would be good with fish, if you were into that type of thing (and not allergic, like me). The garnish is the perfect finishing touch and really is a nice tangy & cool counterpart to the sweet mango.
Grilled Chicken & Butternut Squash with Mango Salsa
1 butternut squash
1 lb chicken
olive oil
salt & pepper
Cooked rice of choice
For salsa:
1.5 cups cubed mango
1/3 medium red onion, diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded & diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
handful fresh cilantro, finely chopped (4ish Tbsp)
juice from 1 lime
salt & pepper to taste
For garnish:
1 cup sour cream
juice from 1/2 lime
pinch of salt, to taste
Mix salsa ingredients and let sit while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Peel butternut squash, cut in half & scoop out the seeds. Turn so flat side rests on the cutting board and cut into thin strips lengthwise.
Cut chicken into strips the same width of the squash. To save time, you can buy the precut chicken tenders.
Grill the squash & chicken over a medium heat after brushing with olive oil and seasoning with salt & pepper. The squash only took around 4-5 minutes per side and the chicken not much longer than that.
Mix garnish ingredients.
Layer squash & chicken pieces over rice, then add a scoop of mango salsa and the sour cream garnish.
Oh my, what a day it's been! Every so often Jess & I get together with our sisters Bekah & Shannon for a Sister Sister Day. This time we decided to stay in and enjoy some food and a few episodes of Scrubs. Wowsers, did we enjoy some food. It started with my special grilled cheese sandwiches, graduated to Bekah's Clove Bean Burritos, then our feast of crab cooked by Jess, and ended with Shannon's Cheese Danish. It was an amazing day spent with amazing people with amazing food. In fact, we're still enjoying each other's company so I'm going to cut this short and just give you some pictures of our crab feast instead.
I just need to quickly update you all that I'm fine, I'm over the pity party, and I'm going strong. After a rather alarmed email from my mom this morning, I realized I maybe should let you all know I'm doing just fine.
I'm not dying, I'm not crying, but I am sighing. The mass of work is flowing quickly towards me. Off to stick my finger in the dike. (Read more children's literature if you don't get that reference)
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Ever get to the point where you have so much to do that you don't even know where to start? I passed that 10 miles back and haven't quite circled back to pick up the dropped pieces. To top it off, I just got some news today at work that makes all of this seem like a walk in the park. Instead of just walking, I'm now required to chew gum at the same time. Metaphorically speaking, not an easy task.
A few days ago, I felt like God was telling me that I needed to give him permission to do whatever he wanted in my life. I just needed to trust him. Ok God, I'm yours.
He's giggling right now up in heaven because as soon as he got permission, he threw a wrench that landed with the utmost precision just where I didn't want it. I am generally a very strong person and can handle most any situation that comes my way. God knows my tendencies to not ask for help, even when I desperately need someone to lean on, and decided to cripple me just enough that I'll be soon crying out for help. Or just plain crying.
I'll get to the other side of this just fine. It's going to be a big learning process and one that will make me better both personally and professionally. Only God is going to be able to get me through this one because there is no way that I can do this by my own power. And I know that's why he's doing what he's doing.
But can I mourn these changes just a little bit? Please? I think tonight's just a bit of a pity party in my head. Those of you who know me, know that I will be over it by the morning and ready to tackle this head on. For the moment though, I'm going to dwell in a bit of sorrow. And a bit of fear of the unknown.
It's such an odd thing for me to be consumed with work. I'm used to plenty of extra time to give of myself and have friends over. I've been so busy I don't even know the last time I cooked a meal for someone other than my roommate. That makes me sad. I know it's just this brief period of time, but I hate not being able to gift people like that. I hate that I can't share my home readily with others.
So for those of you who pray, I need some. Badly. I'm ready and willing to do what's being asked of me, but I need strength. God's at work here and there's no way I can do it without relying on him.
Soli Deo Gloria!
The Farm has a neighbor who sells her organic eggs through them and if they are still there by the time I pick up my produce, I always buy a dozen each week. I just love these eggs. Beautiful colors and all different sizes and tasty beyond belief. Gorgeous. I took some pictures of them for the recipe for Chess Pie but decided that they needed to have their own post. So here you go-- some food porn for your stomach.
Today is the oft anticipated Pi Day (3.14= March 14)! To celebrate, I decided to make a pie. As in the edible kind. Like a few weeks ago, I had some Meyer lemons to use. I contemplated a lemon meringue pie, but decided it was too much work. I stumbled across a Chess Pie recipe and couldn't decide if I should make it because it just sounded weird. Apparently it's a Southern thing. They do odd things down there. I finally figured I didn't have much to lose, and decided it was a bonus that I didn't have to leave the house to get any ingredients.
Chess Pie is very easy to make. My word, I whipped it up in a matter of minutes! It also was quite tasty. I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted a bit like a lemon bar. Ish. Not an exact match, but it's the easiest thing to equate it to. 
By the way, I found some of my pictures being used on the internet without permission, so I'm starting to put the watermark on them now. Ridiculous!
Chess Pie
Ingredients:
For the crust (makes enough for two):
2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk
For the filling:
3 eggs
1 stick of butter (113.4 grams)
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of yellow corn meal
1 teaspoon of vanilla
The juice from 1 and 1/2 lemons (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
Method:
For the crust:
Mix flour and salt. Mix oil and milk. Pour oil and milk into flour and salt and stir until combined into a dough. Can add more milk if dry. Separate into two balls (save one ball for another pie). Roll crust out between two sheets of wax paper, line a pie pan with crust.
For the filling:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the butter.
Mix the sugar in with the butter.
Beat the eggs and add vanilla, corn meal, lemon juice and zest.
Add egg mixture to butter and sugar, and mix well.
Pour filling into an unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.
Let cool for 20 minutes (so filling can set).
Filling makes enough for one pie.
I know I've been a bad blogger (do my 3 posts today make up for it?). I'm so very terribly sorry about that. I didn't mean to be, it just kinda happened. Unfortunately, working long hours tends to cut back on the time I can devote to giving you all scintillating or ridiculous stories. Per several people's requests, I am giving you an update about life as I now know it.
I have a policy of not talking much about work on here, but I'll give you a brief rundown. Basically I quit my last job to go work with my boss who had moved to another company to be the General Manager. I am now working for another heating & cooling company, but this time as an Office Manager/Assistant to the General Manager/Trainer. I love my job and never would have guessed that I would continue a career in this field, but I have to say that I am absolutely enamored with HVAC. I know, weird coming from the girl with a Special Education degree and a background in caregiving. My boss and I work extremely well together because he's the big picture person and I'm the detail person. And he gives me a lot of freedom to do my job without watching over my shoulder. I hate being micromanaged.
I am working really long hours and there is just a lot to get done. The bulk of the hard work is now over and I think I have the major stuff done. Next comes the monitoring and tweaking, which is going to be probably the hardest part. I am hopefully going to not have to work as much though, which will be nice for me. And for you, because I will be out and about having more time to be stupid and give you some good stories.
I do apologize for the silence, but hopefully will be able to start posting a little bit more in the next month or so. Thanks for sticking with me friends!
Ok, so Jami tagged me like, oh, 3 WEEKS ago and I never got around to doing this. It's just been sitting in my Google Reader as a reminder for me to actually pull out a photo and throw it up here. Sorry James, I didn't mean to make you wait this long!
Anyway, I had to go to the 4th folder where I keep my pictures and post the 4th photo. That didn't work so much for me because I have all my photos organized a little bit more detailed than that... so it was the 4th picture of the 4th folder of the 4th folder of the 4th folder and I eventually got to this picture:
Regardless of the randomly erroneous info about this photo on my Flickr page, it was actually taken August 10, 2006 at Hovander Park in Ferndale, WA. Which means that this was my very last week up north before moving to Puyallup. I had already made the move on Aug 1, but was back for one final week before officially committing. I went to this park after taking Donkey Lady, one of my old caregiving clients, out for ice cream. She had been moved to an assisted living facility in Ferndale and I broke her out for a treat. And well, now that I'm talking about Donkey Lady, I might as well post a picture of her.
And yes, that's a donkey. That's why I called her Donkey Lady. Not to her face, of course. Just to make sure that people could keep my stories straight. And boy, did she give me some good stories to tell.
Oh my word, it has been forever since I posted a recipe on here! I decided that today was the day to make amends. I had a bunch of Meyer Lemons from The Farm that I needed to use before they went bad, so I did a little search for a new recipe to try. I came across this insanely easy cake and had to make it. I have to say that I was definitely not let down!
Before I get to the recipe though, take a moment to swoon with me over these gorgeous Meyer Lemons. If only I lived in California and could have a tree of these in my backyard. I never thought I would envy people living there, but these are ridiculously good lemons. Sigh.
The following recipe is taken straight from this site. The only thing I did differently was to use a 10" skillet instead of an 8". If you actually used the correctly sized skillet, you would get a thicker cake. As it was though, this is an incredibly moist and delicious dessert. The original post talks about a sweetened sour cream topping, but doesn't include it in the recipe. I experimented to make my own and have added it at the end for those of you who like precise measurements. 
3/4 cups sugar
Zest of 2 Meyer lemons
juice of 1 Meyer lemon
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup melted butter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
1. Place an 8 inch cast iron skillet over low heat, and add the butter. Slowly let the butter melt while you mix the batter.
2. Place the sugar in a large bowl and add the lemon zest. Rub the zest and sugar between your fingers until the zest is evenly distributed through out the sugar.
3. Add the eggs to the lemon sugar and whisk until fully incorporated. Add the lemon juice and vanilla and mix again, until the liquid is distributed evenly.
4. Add the flour and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until it is evenly distributed.
5. By this time, the butter should be melted. Remove the skillet from the heat and pour the butter into the batter. Set the skillet aside and mix the butter into the batter evenly.
6. Pour the batter back into the skillet, spreading it evenly across the pan. Transfer the skillet into the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The top should just be turning golden, and feel firm to the touch.
Sour Cream Topping
Stir the following together until fully mixed:
1 cup sour cream (I used light but you can use whichever kind you prefer)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
I promise you I will give you a post this weekend with an update about what I'm doing in life and why I've been so silent lately. I am currently at home sick with the flu that is going around our office so I'm not up for lengthy writing at the moment. Until I'm better, enjoy this video. It is strangely soothing and mesmerizing all at the same time. I oddly helped my stomach feel better.
lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo.
Because I feel bad about not posting lately, I'm leaving you with this awesome present:
So my little broski is getting married this summer to the great girl. We are excited to have her join the fam! They asked me to take engagement pics for them for a save the date card, so we went around downtown Puyallup last weekend and had some fun. These are just a few of them, you can click on any of the pictures to see the full set.
I have to confess that I only took 3 pictures on the actual day of the inauguration and haven't even transferred them to my computer yet. Being in a huge crowd made it hard to maneuver to get my big camera out of my bag, which when combined with feeling sick, wanting to keep my hands in my pockets next to my hand warmers, and the autofocus suddenly stop working on my lens, made me just decide to leave the picture taking up to Jess. I know, surprising huh. But that gives you an indication of how unwell I really was feeling. I will post some of her pictures for you once she has them on her Flickr account.
The following pictures are of our marathon sightseeing trek the day before the Inauguration. The night pictures were all taken without a tripod and I am amazed at how well I was able to keep still enough to get semi-ok shots without a ton of blurriness. I did perfect a brace of sorts using the brim of my hat, but I didn't realize until afterwards that it gave all my pictures a slight tilt to the right. I am normally very good about visually eyeballing straight lines, but the hat just threw me off so I had to correct the tilt when I was processing the pictures. It took a lot longer to go through the batch when I had to correct so many tilts! Click on any of the pictures for more.
Washington Monument
I have no idea why all of these ended up in black & white, but they did. I processed in batches and somehow ended up converting them all at separate times without realizing it.
Reflecting Pool
The pool was completely iced over and the barricade had been pushed from the side of it into the water. Part of it was on top of the ice and the other part had frozen underneath. The dude in the first picture was an absolute oddball who just stood there while we were taking pictures. I figured he looked enough like some uniformed important person to keep him in the shot. 
Jess standing on the ice after a young punk decided to try it out and deemed it safe
Lincoln Memorial
Seeing this was by far the best part of the trip, except for the inauguration of course. As some of you know, when I pray God often gives me pictures or visions for me to pass on to the person I am praying for. Generally I don't get that many for myself, but a few years ago I was going through a really rough spot in life. During one particular prayer, God showed me a vision of myself running up to the Lincoln Memorial and being swept up into Lincoln's arms and just being held. God was saying that he was so much bigger than my problems and would be my shelter. He was showing me that he wants to hold me close if I would let him. That was a huge moment for me and to this day, I can still physically feel that hug from Lincoln/God. So to see the memorial in real life and be able to find the quiet with God in that place even when surrounded by hundreds of people was amazing. I will not soon forget that experience.
View of the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial
You can see them dismantling the stage from the concert there in Obama's honor.
The Capitol
The first 3 pictures are from the backside, the final one from the front
Final set up for the Inauguration
Oh, and here's a view of my favorite thing about the trip...
(I hope you realize I was being sarcastic there)
As promised, I have written out how our Inauguration Day went. This is a bit on the long side, so I broke it down into a Before, During, and After section. The after section was really the most eventful of the day. I am working on editing some photos for you and will post hopefully later today.
P.S. The Tacoma News Tribune wrote about our experience here, here, and here. Thanks for the heads up Jason :)
Before
We had planned to get on the Metro right when it started running at 4am but could not face the thought of getting up that early, so we got on around 6am instead. Surprisingly, the cars weren’t all that full when we started out, but that could definitely be attributed to the fact that we were almost at the end of the line. By the time we got about 6 stops down the line the cars were packed.
The metro was so filled with people that the stop we wanted to get off at was temporarily closed so we had to get off at the following one. That station wasn’t much better in terms of sheer numbers of people, so a metro worker started chanting “keep it moving” over the loudspeaker. She kept repeating it and eventually the crowd took it up as a call and answer. Everyone was laughing and in great spirits. Unfortunately we then had to backtrack a ways to get to the Mall. We joined the throngs of people heading in that direction and felt completely lost with no idea of which access points were going to be open and which would be closed. Luckily, they had a ton of volunteers who were more than helpful and helped pass along information about which streets to take and which areas were still open. We finally arrived at a gate a little after 9am.
During
As you can tell from my post on the actual day of the inauguration, I was feeling the joy and excitement in the air when we were finally on the Mall. The air was absolutely electric with the energy from the crowd. We stationed ourselves near a jumbotron so that we would have a good view of what was happening and settled in to just stand there. And stand there. And stand there. They were playing things on the screen for us to watch, but it wasn’t quite enough to distract us from the cold. I was bundled up pretty well and felt warm everywhere exc ept my feet. I forgot to put on extra socks and when you are just standing on the frozen ground, the cold seeps through the bottom of your shoes. I ended up handing out some of my extra toe warmers because one of my neighbors was only wearing tennis shoes with mesh on top and her feet were not going to fare well in that weather.
The crowed absolutely erupted when we got the picture of Obama arriving. All thoughts of cold and discomfort went out the window and the mood in the air increased tenfold. It took forever for all the important people to be announced and make their entrances, which was annoying when all you really want to do is get to the main event. I was disappointed with the crowd however, when Bush was announced and they all started booing. Twice! I am no fan of W’s, as I’m sure you know by now, but he is still a person and deserves to be treated with respect just like anyone else. I thought it was very poor taste for the crowd to boo. However, I did hear that up closer to the Capitol they didn’t hear anything, so I think it just had to be a couple of the sections closer to where I was standing.
Obama’s speech was great. Wonderful. Pointed. Inspiring. All things good. The crowd again erupted over and over and waved the flags that we were given. Jess couldn’t see the jumbotron due to the rather tall people in front of us, so she held her camera up over their heads and watched it all happen on the camera screen. People started trickling out once the speech was done but we stayed until the ending benediction. And then the fun part started…
After
I can safely say that I have never ever in my life experienced anything like the crowd leaving the inauguration. There was poor planning and management of the crowd by officials and it definitely showed. For a mass of people this size, there needed to be wide open spaces for everyone to move. Unfortunately, to get to the street we were needing to walk on, everyone had to funnel through one little opening wide enough for one person at a time. This created a mob of people so packed in that I’m sure you could have lifted your feet off the ground and you would have stayed in place. It was absolutely crazy. I was following Jess and had to hold on to the hood of her jacket to keep from getting separated. Since I’m bigger than her, I would occasionally physically guide and turn her from behind to get out of particularly tight spots. It took us a half hour to cross from one side of a street to the other. There is no crowd that will trump that for me. Ever.
After that, we decided that it would be wise to take a break before going on and trying to get home. We sat on a curb with some other people and watched the masses pass us by. From that point we decided to look for a building to wait out the huge crowds packing the subways. A security guard told us about a shopping mall, L’Enfant Plaza and we headed in that general area. Massive street closures allowed the sea of people to take over the streets, going in all different directions. Like I said in an earlier post, it was surreal to be with thousands and thousands of people flowing over the streets. It felt like some catastrophic event had happened and we were all wandering aimlessly not knowing what to do. We finally ducked in there to get warm and wait and found it packed with a ton of other people trying to get to the metro station connected to the building. Jess and I found a hallway with only about 50 people and sat to wait.
After a while, we thought the crowds had died down considerably and went to get in line for the metro, which was snaked inside the mall. We waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour, we had only gone the length of 4 stores and it was getting hotter by the minute. Picture a small mall hallway packed from side to side with bodies. The low ceiling was trapping in the heat, and the closer you got to the entrance of the metro, the hotter it became. Everyone was shedding layers and people were fainting. No joke. During that hour, we heard several people pass out. I am in the process of developing a cold and at the inauguration wasn’t feeling all that well. After being in those conditions in the line for that long, I developed a fever, started to feel really shaky and told Jess that we had to leave. We were by a side door and were able to escape that way.
From there, we walked to another station an hour away that would allow us to hop right on the correct metro line without having to go through any transfers at crowded stations. We were anticipating some sort of a line at the new station but were beyond thankful to find no line and no waiting for a train. It was completely empty of people. I can’t even begin to describe the absolute relief to be out of that crowded station line. If I hadn’t left, I most certainly would have either fainted or thrown up. We finally made it home a little after 6pm, after trying since 1pm. Finally getting out of D.C. rates up there in probably the top 10 feelings of relief in my life.
All in all, it was a great experience that I would definitely have done all over again. It was amazing to be part of a big historical even instead of just hearing or seeing it happen. A great trip with a great hope for the future of our country. Obama for your mama!
5:40am. We are on our way back to the Richmond airport. This trip has been nothing but early risings and even though I love my mornings, I do not want to see the wrong side of 4am again anytime soon.
However, it feels great to be hat free for the first time in 3 days. And out of my hiking boots. I adore both, but when they are worn for days on end the head gets a bit itchy and the feet need a break.
And as much as I love walking, it feels great to know that I'm not going to have to track down a people-free metro station or find a bathroom with dubious hygienic standards.
Do I talk about bathrooms a lot?
2:01pm. We are in the Cincinnati airport for a 5 hour layover. I am using my time wisely and am typing up a detailed summary of our inauguration day. I am too lazy to go to a different terminal to get wireless internet, so I will post it either tonight when I get home or tomorrow.
Hopefully I will be able to fit a nap in here too. I so need one!
7:21pm. On the bus from the airport heading home. Woot for public transportation!
8:57pm. Home. At last.
9:11am. We are here! It is impossible to describe the mood and feeling here. Everyone chanting in the subways. Singing together in the crowd. It is incredible!
Jess is eating leftover kabob right now and it is grossing me out.
No guarantees about being able to post anymore due to spotty cell reception.
In case people are looking for us, we are close to the Washington Monument facing the capitol.
This is flippin sweet!
2:16pm. I feel like I'm in a disaster movie. Getting out of the National Mall was INSANE! We were in the biggest crush of people and took a half hour to go 30 feet.
Most streets are closed and are literally filled wall to wall with people. It is absolutely surreal to be walking on 4 lane road in a group of thousands of people and pass under an overpass with more people going a different way.
Jess and I ducked into a building to wait for a few hours. We are currently sitting in a hallway with about 50 other people with the same idea.
This is CRAZY! If I didn't know better I would think that some catastrophic event just occurred.
But, it is still fun. The stories we can now tell...
7:17pm. We finally made it back to Aunt Nancy's place. After moving maybe 300 yards in an hour while waiting in line at a particular station, we decided to hoof it an hour away to a different station. It was completely clear. Praise the Lord.
8:20pm. I would like to add that I am super glad that I can now drink water without wondering where I'm going to use the bathroom. There were a ton of port-a-potties at the mall but the cleanliness definitely left something to be desired. Let's just say it was a good thing we brought our own toilet paper with us. Oh yes, we did.
I will post stories in more detail once we are back home and I can use my laptop instead of my phone to type.
10:41pm. Went to bed an hour ago because we have to get up early for our flight but I can't get to sleep because I keep thinking about how great the day was.
6:30am. I should so be asleep right now but am mysteriously wide awake. Just looked at the weather and it is supposed to snow. Joy! (that is said with sarcasm)
11:03am. I think I lied when I said that I wouldn't have internet access anymore. Jess needed to work on an assignment that's due for school tomorrow and we thought now would be the best time to get that finished. So I am currently sitting in Panera (free wi-fi baby!) and catching up on everything. I'm working on editing a few pictures to throw your way before she gets done, but no guarantees. While I'm doing that, you can check out how famous we are. The News Tribune featured us: http://www.thenewstribune.com/1099/story/599432.html Booyah!
1:15pm. I have updated yesterday's entry to include pictures. Just letting you know because I know I have some readers who use RSS feeds and might have already looked at the post.
1:16pm. It's fricken snowing here! Seriously, what is up with this?!?!
10:49pm. We are back after a marathon evening of seeing DC at night. We got some great pictures but are more than ready for bed. More to come tomorrow...
9:52am. Watching trashy TV while waiting for Jess to pack. This is the life.
12:15pm. Jess and I are waiting for the shuttle into Williamsburg. She and I have different approaches to vacations... She has to plan and get everything in that she can while I just go and do whatever. She is currently pouring over the map plotting our course. This could be a long day...
3:37pm. I am currently drinking what has to be the best mocha I have ever had. Not really but after being outside for hours it is amazing. Jess is on some tour of some building but I decided to forgo that for the joy of coffee.
4:13pm. By the way Happy Birthday Joel! You're an old man now.
6:12pm. This is Jessica and we are are currently heading north on i-95 to Rockville. The day has gone well in Williamsburg. It was fun to brush up on forgotten early American history...though being winter most things were closed and there were very few people.
We are both getting hungry for a good meal! No really good food has eaten yet... I am hoping this will change very soon.
10:36pm. Arrived at Aunt Nancy's place, albeit after much giggling while lifting Jess up to peer in an old man's window and waking him up. Um yeah, we had the wrong place. Sorry for terrorizing you Lawrence!
We won't have much internet access now so all updates will be from Mr. Berry. Blackberry that is. I will have to post pictures and full stories when we get back.
Oh, and by the way, you know you've been having bad food when the highlight is the Chinese food you got from the grocery store. I am seriously doubting the cooking abilities of the people around here.
1/19 Picture Update:
As many of you know, I am a detail person. Give me the big picture and I will tell you all the details that need to happen for the big picture to be complete. Thus, when I take pictures, I tend to document the details. Here are a few of our journey yesterday in Williamsburg. You can click on any of the pictures to see the full set.
And finally, the sick and disgusting Waffle House:
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3:14am. Obama should make it illegal to be up this early.
4:34am. We would like to extend a special thank you to our sponsor Bekah Schmidt who kindly woke up from her dream about terrorists to take us to the airport.
5:19am. Its currently a balmy 8 degrees in Virginia! Time to break out the shorts
2:30pm. On connecting flight in atlanta. Just enough time to pee and then we had to board. Bloody hot and hungry. Thank the lord for the apples we packed.
7:40pm. Oh my, what a cultural experience we just had. After picking up our rental car and finding our hotel for the night, we went to dinner because as stated at 2:30, we were famished. We hadn't really eaten since the wee hours of the morning. Not wanting to prolong our stomach pains much longer, we headed for the nearest place-- The Waffle House. We do a drive by to look in the windows and are disheartened by the fact that there is only one pair of customers in the restaurant. Taking that as a bad sign, we drove another block but decided to turn around because while we're in the South, we might as well take advantage of it.
We walk in the doors to an overwhelming stench of cigarettes and puke. For some reason we keep walking to a table and even take a look at the menu. Jess and I keep giving each other the "this-place-smells-like-pee" type of looks and are struggling to figure out if we want to stay. Eventually the waitress comes over to us and we decide to just go for it. We're going to brave the dirty counters, rotting lettuce, and dripping waffle pans we see. Why? I don't know either.
I'm really struggling how to best write this next part because really, I don't wish to be derogatory or mean or superior to anyone. So with that disclaimer, I would like to just say that there is no better way to describe our waitress than to say that she absolutely epitomizes what many people would call the stereotypical Southern redneck. Just to give you a general idea, she looked to be about 17 and wore huge plastic earrings in the shape of a heart with peace signs in the middle. I wish to submit the following evidence for you to ponder:
1) First, in response to Jess' comment that we had never been to Virginia before and certainly never to the Waffle House, she replied proudly, completely mystified by these out of towners, "Oh REALLY? Well, we serve ALL Coke products here."
2) When Jess was served her biscuits and sausage gravy, the sausage was on the side for her to cut up and put in there herself.
3) We overheard the waitress yelling into her cell phone, "I called the jail and he wasn't there". Jess and I turned to each other with wide eyes at that point and the waitress came over to apologize for all the ruckus. I asked her if she was ok and she told us the story about how her fiancee he had disappeared for two days and wouldn't return her calls. Apparently this is something he does somewhat frequently. I told her in no uncertain terms that she needs to get out of that relationship because she deserved someone who would treat her better.
4) And I am sorry, but no matter what way you slice the bread, there was some weird hanky panky going on in her familial life. She kept calling a coworker of hers "Daddy", when he looked to be no older than 20. At one point, he pulled a picture of a baby out of his wallet and the waitress took it to show someone else what her new baby brother looked like. There is no way that this guy actually fathered this waitress at 3 years of age.
Seriously, this was definitely a night of culture for us.
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