December is Here!

Just in case you weren't aware of it yet I'll remind you. It is, in fact, December. No, I can't believe it either. Now is the time when you ask me what I have done to usher in this new month full of holiday wonderful-ness. My answer might surprise you. I went ice skating! Yes, me.... Ice skating!

One of my many roommates is from Wisconsin and we went together. When she was growing up they would go skate on frozen lakes in the winter. This concept completely baffled me. Ice skate, outside? But that is just what we did! A few blocks away from my museum is the Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery of Art. It's full of these really interesting, mostly weird, gigantic sculptures. In the winter months they turn the giant fountain in the center into an ice skating rink! They have strung Christmas lights all around and it looks just heavenly! Skating under the stars!

Anyway, my roommate was, of course, exceptionally good, whereas I was exceptionally bad, although I did see much improvement in myself over the course of two hours. I actually had fun! After I got good enough to not need the rail every other second... hehe.

It was actually kind of fun being bad at ice skating. You're not in the center of the rink surrounded by good and mediocre skaters, you're on the fringes clutching the rail with an ice-cold death-grip so that you don't fall down. There's a lot of camaraderie between all of the bad people. As you slowly circle the rink, you invariably come into contact with the same people over and over again. It is so comforting, at least it was for me, to see that their faces mirroring the shear terror and embarassment as suddenly things get a little too slippery.

Oh! Here's an interesting anecdote I forgot to tell you earlier. I was going to meet my roommate at the rink at 7:00, so I left work around 6:15. I was planning on making a Starbuck's run to get a hot chocolate before I went and stood on ice for two hours. There's a starbucks only a few blocks away from the sculpture garden (surprise, surprise), and I was absolutely shocked to find it closed! What kind of Starbucks closes at 6:00 pm????

At this point, I had nowhere to go until 7:00 and it was freezing outside. I wanted to find a place to either get coffee or get a quick dinner, so I resolutely stepped off the front step of the heinously closed Starbucks and marched off up the street. I figured at some point I would find something edible or drinkable. On my way to the warm place that I was imagining I discovered a very interesting used book store. I didn't get a chance to go in it, but I definitely put it on my list of places to go in the very near future. Anyway, I kept walking. I passed several fancy restaraunts and bars, shops, parking garages, etc. until suddenly, not three blocks from where I had angrily stomped my foot at the Starbucks, there stood yet another Starbucks! Only this one was twice as big as the first, and mercifully full of people! I boldly grasped the handle, and my heart gave a small leap as I felt the door yield and let me in. I practically ran to the counter and told them my order, so that I could sit and enjoy my hard-earned cup of hot chocolate as soon as I could. The moral of this story kids is that with nothing but a little determination, you can find a Starbucks anywhere!

Today was my second to last Monday at work. I'm actually sad about it! This week we have two full days of meetings... ick. It's all very interesting to learn about the production & design processes, but it keeps me away from all of the delicious research I could be doing. I found a really cool website today that has information on just about every ship ever commissioned by the US Navy. Amazing! Here's the link, just in case you were interested...

http://www.historycentral.com/Navy/index.html

On my way home from work today I was accosted by 45 mph gusts of wind across the Mall that nearly blew me right into the Washington Monument. By the time I got to Union Station the wind was making the flags sound like machine guns! It was nuts! Limbs were flying off branches and hitting cars and anything that weighed less than 100 pounds was flying around like I was in the middle of a tornado. I was so happy to finally get to my front door! Oh, and on Tuesday night through all of Wednesday we're supposed to have snow! What the heck!?! Snow! I'll definitely let you know it that happens!

Anyway, I hope you are all having an absolutely wonderful day, and that you're staying warm! Love y'all!