The next morning was baccalaureate which was far more formal than ours at C of I. The students get dressed in their cap and gowns and it's a pretty long ceremony. There was a yummy reception afterwards and then, to be honest, some of the events kind of blend together. I think there were a few more receptions, one at this gorgeous large house in the country with a wonderful porch and I was able to chat with some very nice and intelligent people. That night, there was a joint graduation party at Emerald City which was fun until I got tired and just wanted to sleep, which was difficult when my bed was the couch.
Graduation was the next day and luckily the rain held off until the very end when we were walking to the sorority house. It went by a lot quicker than I expected, luckily, and thank goodness it wasn't too hot. There was a private awards ceremony in the morning at the President's Office for Clarke and Shiri and the man who came from the Sullivan Award Foundation was absolutely adorable. I just wanted to hug him and smile with him. Shiri was one of three that were singled out at the actual ceremony, so pretty high honor! So proud of my little TPFTW. The sorority house lunch was also delicious and there were a few more receptions before we went to dinner with Susie and Wayne, the folks who Mom and Abba had been staying with.
The following morning, I wandered around downtown Lex before Mom, Abba and Shiri drove me into Staunton. We went to this great little pizza restaurant with amazing cheesy bread and then wandered around until the train was supposed to arrive. Except it was very late. This was to be the theme of the day (Megan Dixon told me later that it's because we don't have dual rail lines and passenger trains always have to wait for freight trains.... good to know.... thanks American....). I swear i was on the slowest train in the whole wide world. The lady next to me was nice though (she kept saying "i love DC... that's where my president is....") and thank goodness I had an entire season of Firefly to keep me occupied. I made it up to Danielle's in record time though and we had delicious tacos and champagne on the roof. Bliss.
On Saturday, I went to Ricky and Danielle to check out "spacious with den" which really wasn't spacious although there was a den.... they're in the process of trying to find a slightly bigger place but this certainly wasn't it. From there, we dropped Ricky off at work and went down to the Potomac for a boat tour. The tour took us past most of the monuments and although our guide was a little odd, my Israeli personality got us onto the boat and the roof kept us cool as we sailed up and down the river. Next we cabbed it to the Portrait Gallery which was also with the American Art Gallery. I loved some of the stuff there- of course portraits are great because they represent so much of history and the upstairs Champions and Artists section. The architecture of the building was also phenomenal, especially the upstairs. After showering and changing, we went down to Bibiana for dinner, which is where Ricky works. We got a cocktail and Ricky sent out some delicious apps and we ended up staying for dinner, sharing a few pasta dishes and being given some complimentary soft-shell crab. I could get used to this life!
On Sunday morning, I ran about three miles down to Dupont Circle where Danielle met me to go wander around the farmer's market. Such great colors and smells and things to sample. We went to a few bookstores, grabbed some coffee and luckily caught a bus right to the apartment. We relaxed that afternoon, making a quick stop up to Politics and Prose and CVS before getting dinner at 2Amy's, this amazing pizza place and then going to see Bob Marley at the improv. THe first comic was funny, the second one was just OK and Bob was absolutely hysterical. We were crying with laughter. There was a guy siting across the stage from us though that did not once break a smile. What's with this guy? Why was he even there? It was pouring when we came up from the Improv but it certainly cooled us down after a hot day.
Monday was Memorial Day and suuuuuuper hot. Danielle and I drove out to a little town near Dulles to meet up with Mom and Abba for breakfast at this great little bagle place. It was really great for them to catch up with Danielle, seeing as it had been years since they had last seen each other. From there, we did the fastest Whole Foods shopping trip ever, picking up some things for dinner that night. We decided to brave the crowds for the parade, stopping first at the Old Post Office Building to get some Be and Jerry's. There weren't a lot of people at the parade and we're pretty sure an amateur was directing the whole thing because a few bands would come by and then a huge gap and then a few more. But we saw Chuck Yeager, Kris Allen from American Idol and Gary Sinise which was pretty cool. After an hour, we went inside to escape from the heat and wandered around a few exhibits at the Natural History Museum, including a really fascinating forensic anthropology at the Jamestown and Chesapeake Settlements. Ricky made delicious mussels in a garlic sauce with crusty bread and salad for dinner that night, which was ah-mazing. We finished the night out with our usual trashy television. It was needed after a long, hot day!
I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with Alicia at American University on Tuesday morning. AU was close enough that I could run there, hang out with her for a bit and then run back without exhausting myself. After showering, changing and packing up, I headed down to the National Museum of the American Indian. So many interesting things there, especially the exhibit about the Spirit of the Horse. I wish I had had more time to really read everything but I saw some great artifacts. I also got a chance to eat at their authentic cafeteria. I had Plains fry bread with sugar and honey. OMG so good!
The bus out to the airport was only $6 and I made it out with no trouble. The trouble began when the flight coming in was late so we boarded late so we didn't make it out past the storm so they noticed a screen was malfunctioning so they went back to the gate but then discovered that it did work so they finally took off but we were all late and missed our flights and because United is a stupid airline, they blamed it just on the weather and not on anything else so we all slept on the floor of the airport. Awesome. Luckily, I got out on the first standby flight the next morning and got to nap at Brooke and Kevin's before C of I alumni Happy Hour.
And there you have my East Coast Week!
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