catching up.

whew. what a whirlwind weekend, and it's not even sunday night!

first, my trip back from aiken. thursday was a long (18+) hour day. you can ask h, i was not a pleasant person to be around when i got home at nearly 1 am. however, i was excited to share my coffee from moonbeans coffees-- i got 2 bags for jre (moondance, his favorite, and harvest, another similar medium roast blend) and a pound of big papa's blend for my lil sis. big papa's blend is their charity of the month roast, benefiting the national multiple sclerosis society, lil sis's new internship. there's a bag of bluegrass blend (my personal fave) that i need to pull out of my freezer. the roaster at moonbeans told me that you should never keep them in the freezer--beans should be kept whole until needed, and kept in an airtight container at room temperature. learn something new every day!

friday i worked from home--evaluated my new health insurance plan & did some tedious odds & ends & recovered from thursday. i had lunch with some girls from czc at leigh street bar & grill (1301 leigh street behind the siegel center in richmond--currently no website yet). leigh street used to be called the corner bar & grill... they've cleaned up a bit, but the food is still soulfoul & delicous. we got homemade potato chips w/ a creamy dip and grilled cheese sandwiches w/ tomato, mmm. i got mine with a side of collard greens (my fave), but the girls said the veggies were good too. they have a good beer list, and i can see it being a happening neighborhood bar on the weekends. if you happen by, make sure to tell austin the bartender we said hi ( :

then off to get my haircut. my friend k told me about her friend janis who works at karina's in carytown, and in a period of desperation (& anger towards my last hairdresser of nearly 3 years), i gave janis a try. she was wonderful! i remember my mom used to go to karina's when it opened in 1992. i'm pretty sure karina herself cut all of my mom's hair off before she had her second round of chemo. the receptionist said my name sounded familiar. "my mom used to come here a long, long time ago," felt really good to say. karina's has changed a lot- it's a great little space-very clean and very hip. they use bumble&bumble products, which i love, and who just came out with a whole new line for curls. i bought the defrizz, which i will use for curly&straight looks.

h&v&i drove back to dc for the weekend. we had dinner with my roommate n, and her bro, a at matchbox on barracks row in southeast dc. i had mentioned this restaurant to a friend coming to visit dc, telling him it was one of my favorites, then promptly got yelled at by h for never taking him to a, gasp, pizza restaurant (that kid loves the za)! matchbox pizza is amazing. not to mention their stellar beer selection (tried brooklyn brewery's brooklyner weiss, as my new thing is german beers--it was great)! h tried the flat iron pizza (like a cheesesteak, but on a pizza), i had shrimp&grits (amazing) and n&a shared the fire&smoke pizza (just the right amount of spice). then we skipped back across the river to eventide in clarendon, va. this drive went very fast for me, as i fell asleep in the 10-minute car ride as my boyfriend&roommate took embarassing pictures of me (i had had a long day)! boo.

but eventide was just what i needed to wake up- a great rooftop bar, with some great atmopshere & an evening of wonderful spring weather. i'd love to try their food downstairs, too (hint, hint), especially after reading the review in the washington post magazine this morning.

saturday morning we were super lazy, barely making it to "brunch" at mexicali blues (maybe my new favorite bloody marys). we had plans to go to great falls, but laziness took the better of us, and we ended up going to the dog park in shirlington with v. it's right by a little creek, four-mile run, and we sat and waded in the water and played on the "beach" for nearly 2 hours. it was a perfect afternoon-just what we needed.

last night we went with some family friends to see our friend laura tsaggaris play at rock&roll hotel in northeast dc for her cd release party. if you haven't heard me rave about her, please go check out her music on myspace. she's doing amazing things!

h woke up early today to go back to richmond for a football game. i did a much-needed cleaning of the house & had bagels with the fam. auntie l & i went to get manis. she made fun of my color pick, accusing me that my fingers looked bruised. i don't care, i like it! ( ;

now i'm cleaning up & unwinding & remembering mom. what a beautiful day!