Reflections of My Week

What a week! I am still behind in yardwork and laundry, etc, but I have a good excuse.  Can you guess where I was?

I'll give you a few hints:

This is the bridge I walked over to cross the highway...

These are the steps that I lugged my luggage and laptop up and down twice during my stay...

Nearest crossroads...

Got my lunch here one day...

Give up yet?

How about a couple of really good photo clues?

...

...

Yes, friends, I was in DC (Arlington, actually) for much of the week. Monday I anxiously wrapped things up at work so I could catch an early morning plane (3, actually) to DC.  Flying was enjoyable this trip because I lucked out and got a window seat on every flight (5 in toto) there and back.

I hadn't been to DC since 2003 when I was giving the training in Silver Spring, MD. This time I was receiving the training in Arlington, VA. I tried to remember how I managed on the Metro from 9 years ago (which was fruitless) then I remembered that my new boss mentioned "Rosslyn" so I took the Metro to Rosslyn Station and hopped out into the street. That's when I needed a compass or to be better versed in using my GPS on my BlackBerry.

My hotel was within walking distance from the training facility which was like 2 blocks from the Metro station so it should have been easy to find, right? I headed in the direction my GPS gave me, then I updated from a couple of blocks away and did this a couple of times before I actually got on track to my destination. Once I felt like I was headed in the right general direction (I really was), I heard "Nolita!" and looked up to see a co-worker of mine. His GPS had a compass and he was kind enough to walk me most of the way to my hotel. [sn: We took the same flight to Dallas, but he got a direct flight to DC from there while my flight went to DC via KC.]

So I got to my hotel unscathed (or barely scathed anyway) and found out that my room included a full kitchen! I almost felt like I should cook something.

I have that same knife set in my kitchen and I think the range is a cousin of ours...

I got over that feeling pretty quickly when I decided to stay in for the evening and order some Drunken Noodles and Tom Yan Gai. I took a long soak in the tub, read the rest of my magazine and some of my book, mapped my route to training and then settled in for a nice long rest. That was about 11pm and the fire alarm went off at 1am. I was groggy when I grabbed my purse and headed down 10 (!) flights of stairs smelling smoke on the 9th floor stairwell. When I got to the lobby the manager said that it was a false alarm, that someone on the 4th floor accidentally set off the fire alarm when trying to turn on her lamp (whatever!).

The fire fighters showed up and I was sure to let them know about the smoke. They checked everything out and gave it the "all clear" and by 1:30am I was safely back in my bed....but still wondering about that smoke smell in the stairwell.

 The first day of training was packed with lots of detailed information and by lunch time my eyes were glazing over. I headed downstairs to Safeway to get a really yummy salad of penne, arugula, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, gorgonzola and a basil yogurt dressing. Yum-o! Will have to recreate that lovely salad at home.

After training for the day, my co-workers and I headed over to Cafe Asia for some Yuenglings and then we hit Red, Hot and Blue for some tasty BBQ. Thankfully after I went to bed that night there were no more repeat fire alarms.

On Thursday after class we had some free time so we hopped on the Metro and headed to the Smithsonian Metro station to see what sights we could see. I felt bad that in the end I had to bug out because of my poor choice of footwear (I love my boots but I can't walk all over DC in them) and I had my luggage and laptop with me because I was headed back home later that day. We tried to go into one of the Smithsonian Museums (the one with this outside) but decided to go elsewhere when we saw the long line of Spring Breakers. We were heading to the Reflecting Pool because it was just over there and then I remembered our AOL 2000 trip to DC when everything was just over there and were talked into walking back from a Georgetown bar to our hotel on L'Enfant Plaza. Our feet were so sore after that...


We snapped a couple of pics in front of a national monument or two and then I zipped back to the Metro to make my way back to DCA...and eventually back home late, late Thursday night.

My poor body was sore from hoofing it all over DC and Arlington and then the Chicago airport and sleeping in the plane, yada, yada, yada, so I was very happy to get a therapeutic massage in Friday morning. The massage therapist was awesome even when I felt she was trying to make me cry working knots out.  She gave me some stretches to do at work and also warned me to stop sleeping on my stomach. Such a hard thing to kick after 43 years of doing so, but I'll try...

After my massage I met a friend of mine at Misal for another yummy lunch and then I camped out in my yard weeding, planting bulbs and enjoying some alone time with nature...aaaahhhh, so good to be home again.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend, friends!