traisping hither and yon
So last night I met stillesprite, her brother (whom i am trying and failing not to call hiro. stillesprite is making a similiar effort, but with slightly more success), corwin, and jonathan (the guy who does my job, but for NGC on some other project). Having collected everyone at the gate in chinatown (which i walked to from metro center), we went to chinatown express.
3 of us got beef noodles (which weren't as good this time because they were slices of beef inside instead of hunks of ligament boiled soft as jelly), stillesprite got her pork noodles, her brother got general tsao's chicken, and then we got a thing of veggie potstickers, a thing of shao long baozhi, and half a peking duck to share. Dinner was overwhelming and in the end I opted to drink all my soup and get the noodles, veggies and meat put in a box. drinking the soup would potentially prevent a recurrence of the mapotofu incident. The duck came on a bed of lettuce with, strangely enough, a little bit of broccoli around it and watching corwin make a duck wrap with lettuce and broccoli in it (along with duck sauce, green onions, and duck) was one of the stranger moments of my life, at the very least because the broccoli was not cut small enough to really fit in the wrap, even if i thought it was supposed to be there. oh well, i mean, broccoli is good for you yeah?
My fortune cookie promised me that I would be very happy with my wife. What makes it even better is that 3/5 of us got that same fortune. me, stillesprite, and corwin.
stillesprite's brother reminds me strangely of dave (whom probably only sillyandmorbid knows. remember dave?) from home. something about the way he talks, and the way he walks, but not 6 foot three. come to think of it, the hair might have helped the impression a little, because it was in a quintessential dave!haircut (from high school).
anyway, after dinner, we walked from chinatown past potbelly's (where a few brave souls got milkshakes) down to the mall, which is an extremely pleasant walk. then we walked down the mall to the actual washington monument (as opposed to looking at the monument from a distance, since i can do that from my landlord's apartment, or, you know, the office). We sat there a bit on the incredibly uncomfortable marble benches chitchatting, before cutting through the dark grass to the WWII memorial. Jonathan stepped in a puddle, but we all seemed to have escaped dog poop.
We went down to the fountain first. I took a couple of pictures :D because might as well and it was pretty and lit up. then we went round one side of the states to the other end only to find there was no direct outlet out. you had to go out one of the things on the side, which is really quite inconvenient from a path-planning standpoint. I was displeased because we had to walk by another quarter of the states and ok, they were like spider jungle gyms. it makes sense from a spider pov, because there are shining lights on them which attracts bugs, so it's like prime spider real estate but jkjkflea *shudder* dear god, the spiders. not little ones either. keybridge size spiders. ugh.
anyway! then we walked down the length of the reflecting pool to the lincoln, which i really haven't been to in years and years, probably high school. we made a quick pitstop to the restroom (which was also pathed inconveniently. To get from the reflecting pool path, you had to go all the way back to the WWII memorial, then take this curvy S path away from the restroom, then make this long arch back to the bathroom itself). Everyone else, who was actually using the restroom just cut through the grass. I cut through with them back to the path, but i took the paved lanes to get there.
After the lincoln, where we spent a little time looking for the typo, we walked to foggy bottom. It was a very sudden transition from 'tourist DC' to 'my DC' with the little houses and cramped trees and not all this grass! and sky!. it was also suddenly 'oh! wait, i know where we are!' At GW I cut out and went home, hugs for everyone; presumably everyone else went for a drink. stillesprite says i should feel honored, as her brother won't even give their grandmother a hug. All of the hugs were very much 'i am gross and sweaty and don't want to touch you because then you'll know i'm gross and sweaty' on all sides XD
home a little before midnight, showered, and then in bed around 1. I thought it was really a fun little (2-hour) walk, since the weather was warm and could have been a lot more humid, it was vaguely breezy, and stillesprite had supplied us with bugspray. The one downside was how complainy the boys were about how we were walking so farrr blahblah. i guess they weren't really too bad, and not very obvious about it, but i did actively have to ignore their complaints because excuse me, you are grown men. gaman dekinai no? anyway, it was kind of like, two of you have 12 inches on me, and i am carrying a 10 pound purse, + the 20oz water bottle i stuck inside. i can't speak to their personal in-shape-ness status, but i am definitely not in shape, and i didn't think it was bad. i guess that's what they get for opting to drive everywhere. lazy lazy. *scoffs*
but yeah, fun time :Dv
my blood nails continue to please me.
3 of us got beef noodles (which weren't as good this time because they were slices of beef inside instead of hunks of ligament boiled soft as jelly), stillesprite got her pork noodles, her brother got general tsao's chicken, and then we got a thing of veggie potstickers, a thing of shao long baozhi, and half a peking duck to share. Dinner was overwhelming and in the end I opted to drink all my soup and get the noodles, veggies and meat put in a box. drinking the soup would potentially prevent a recurrence of the mapotofu incident. The duck came on a bed of lettuce with, strangely enough, a little bit of broccoli around it and watching corwin make a duck wrap with lettuce and broccoli in it (along with duck sauce, green onions, and duck) was one of the stranger moments of my life, at the very least because the broccoli was not cut small enough to really fit in the wrap, even if i thought it was supposed to be there. oh well, i mean, broccoli is good for you yeah?
My fortune cookie promised me that I would be very happy with my wife. What makes it even better is that 3/5 of us got that same fortune. me, stillesprite, and corwin.
stillesprite's brother reminds me strangely of dave (whom probably only sillyandmorbid knows. remember dave?) from home. something about the way he talks, and the way he walks, but not 6 foot three. come to think of it, the hair might have helped the impression a little, because it was in a quintessential dave!haircut (from high school).
anyway, after dinner, we walked from chinatown past potbelly's (where a few brave souls got milkshakes) down to the mall, which is an extremely pleasant walk. then we walked down the mall to the actual washington monument (as opposed to looking at the monument from a distance, since i can do that from my landlord's apartment, or, you know, the office). We sat there a bit on the incredibly uncomfortable marble benches chitchatting, before cutting through the dark grass to the WWII memorial. Jonathan stepped in a puddle, but we all seemed to have escaped dog poop.
We went down to the fountain first. I took a couple of pictures :D because might as well and it was pretty and lit up. then we went round one side of the states to the other end only to find there was no direct outlet out. you had to go out one of the things on the side, which is really quite inconvenient from a path-planning standpoint. I was displeased because we had to walk by another quarter of the states and ok, they were like spider jungle gyms. it makes sense from a spider pov, because there are shining lights on them which attracts bugs, so it's like prime spider real estate but jkjkflea *shudder* dear god, the spiders. not little ones either. keybridge size spiders. ugh.
anyway! then we walked down the length of the reflecting pool to the lincoln, which i really haven't been to in years and years, probably high school. we made a quick pitstop to the restroom (which was also pathed inconveniently. To get from the reflecting pool path, you had to go all the way back to the WWII memorial, then take this curvy S path away from the restroom, then make this long arch back to the bathroom itself). Everyone else, who was actually using the restroom just cut through the grass. I cut through with them back to the path, but i took the paved lanes to get there.
After the lincoln, where we spent a little time looking for the typo, we walked to foggy bottom. It was a very sudden transition from 'tourist DC' to 'my DC' with the little houses and cramped trees and not all this grass! and sky!. it was also suddenly 'oh! wait, i know where we are!' At GW I cut out and went home, hugs for everyone; presumably everyone else went for a drink. stillesprite says i should feel honored, as her brother won't even give their grandmother a hug. All of the hugs were very much 'i am gross and sweaty and don't want to touch you because then you'll know i'm gross and sweaty' on all sides XD
home a little before midnight, showered, and then in bed around 1. I thought it was really a fun little (2-hour) walk, since the weather was warm and could have been a lot more humid, it was vaguely breezy, and stillesprite had supplied us with bugspray. The one downside was how complainy the boys were about how we were walking so farrr blahblah. i guess they weren't really too bad, and not very obvious about it, but i did actively have to ignore their complaints because excuse me, you are grown men. gaman dekinai no? anyway, it was kind of like, two of you have 12 inches on me, and i am carrying a 10 pound purse, + the 20oz water bottle i stuck inside. i can't speak to their personal in-shape-ness status, but i am definitely not in shape, and i didn't think it was bad. i guess that's what they get for opting to drive everywhere. lazy lazy. *scoffs*
but yeah, fun time :Dv
my blood nails continue to please me.