"I never said I'd leave the city"

I'm well aware I'm not off to a great start with making regular posts this year... but that's ok. I've been focusing on some other areas. I have to remind myself that this is a blog meant to keep you guys updated on my life, not necessarily be the most entertaining thing ever on earth or a place to make a stand and preach about things. That reminder helps me feel less guilty about not being as present here as I could be. But now, prepare yourself for a lengthy recap post!

This past weekend was incredible. There are no words that can adequately express how happy I was the whole weekend. We took the red-eye in, arriving Friday morning, making a quick turnaround to go to Mom's exercise class midday (had to get my strength training day in!). Mom and I even made a quick dash to Wheaton Plaza and did a mad run through Target. I miss shopping time with girls, and especially shopping time with my mom. We like so many of the same knickknacks.

Lunch with Mom :)

Later we had visit to Ed's brother Rob and his wife Alexis (and I met Ed's - wait, now my! - beautiful niece Ellis) which was really nice. Rob, Ed and I had coffee together, catching up on all the big doings. Afterwards we had a chance to drive around the area we used to live in and grabbed a little Korean BBQ. Some things have changed, like the Tyson's Corner beltway area but... it's really exactly as I remember it. It all felt as familiar as if I was there yesterday. And for those of you who say I haven't been gone long enough to see a difference? I was stunned by the progress made on the metro line extensions and buildings that were not even close to standing when we left.

Saturday Ed came out running with me despite our exhaustion. He runs (literally) twice as fast as I do, so it's always very generous of him to run with me at my sloooow pace. He did help me shave off .12 off my time though! We then had breakfast with some of my friends: Michelle, Austin, Joe, and Evyan, at Eggspectation in Silver Spring. It was just so nice catching up and gossiping about what all our old high school friends are up to now. It's hard to believe some people are on their second kid, or famous, or married, or on their second degree/graduate school, or divorced, or living somewhere across the globe. It's almost like we're adults or something... yikes! I wish we could have stayed hanging out a bit longer, but we all had errands. I had to run to Bethesda where Mikyla at The Shop was going to style my hair for the Jazz Band Alumni performance that evening. She made me look fantastic and I loved my 'big Texas hair.' My sister was right, I probably could have asked for a bouffant and would've been in love with it as well. :)

The bigger the better!

From there I ran over to rehearsal where, I couldn't hide it, I was very nervous to see who would be there and to see if I could still pull it out of the hat (vocally). The band.... I can't begin to tell you how amazing the band was.... the sound nailed you to the back wall as you walked in, I was stunned. Thankfully I had come in time to hear the other two vocalists (wonderful) and support them in rehearsal. It all went by so fast and before I knew it I was home getting changed and then back out for the performance.

Rehearsal

There was a pizza buffet for the band people before the concert to catch up and network. It's a strange thing seeing people again after 9 years. People you saw everyday for multiple hours, and then nothingness, and all of a sudden there they are! Looking exactly the same. That's the part that gets me. No one looks different. Sure some of us have put on weight or colored our hair but honestly? You guys all still look the same to me. Hope that comes off as a compliment because that is exactly as it's intended.

The performance... was amazing. The bands, the honors and the alumni bands, were just incredible. It was surreal sitting in that theater again. So much history passed there for me. Watching Joan Rackey on stage took me right back to high school. I was so nervous and sweaty and ill... just like high school. :) And the music.... see this is why I have little faith in my ability to be a reviewer because in my mind I can hear the songs and am blown away all over again by the clear beautiful sound, but I just can't find the words to describe it. So, let me bow out here and just post some videos to speak for themselves!

"Over the Rainbow":

"Fly Me to the Moon":

I wanted to weep I was so happy to be up there again, with that incredible band and that incredible woman directing us. I've already told you how much I believe Joan Rackey deserves all the praise and gratitude that can possibly be heaped upon a teacher. She was gracious and funny and handled the whole evening with nonchalance.

Shirts for the Alumni Band

Gathering both groups to play together at the end

Afterwards we grabbed up as many people as we could, including our elementary school and middle school band teachers Ms. Mathis and Ms. Parks, and we hopped over to Savannah's for drinks and karaoke. Some of us were quite overwhelmed by the unusual set up of drinking with teachers from so many past school years. :) We sang and danced like crazy people and just had a wonderful time celebrating a wonderful evening. And yes I stole a bunch of these pictures from other photographers in the group so... thanks for taking great pictures for me! :)

Sunday I should have been up and running 3mi... but that just was not happening. I had hit my sleep deprivation wall and was on the verge of hallucinating (seriously, later that day at the airport I came out of the bathroom looking to meet up with Ed, and although he was maybe 15 feet from me, I did not recognize him and looked around and past him maybe 10 times - he was looking at me like I was having a stroke). So we drove up and stopped in to see Omi for a short visit. I'm really glad we got to see her considering we probably won't be back in the area until August. Flying back to CA was endlessly long, and I'm sure it felt even more so just because it was such quiet downtime in comparison to the riot the rest of the weekend had been.

Being home is already a bit of a downer just being away from all the people we love very much. Ed and I both agreed this was one of the best visits home we've ever had. Thank you to Joan for asking me to sing and for pulling such an incredible band together, it was an honor to be part of it. Thank you all for reminding us why it's so amazing to come home again and what a perfect group of friends and family we have.

P.S. Happy Birthday to my Dad today! :)

"The city is my church, it wraps me in the sparkling twilight"

Whoops, sorry for the delayed post! I've been a bit busy! This will be quite a long post so forgive me :)

Last week.... I visited Ck!!!!! It was so amazing. Ed joined us for the weekend but I stayed a couple extra days just to have girl time. We had the most ridiculous dinner out together at Animal, an incredible restaurant that leans to southern cooking. We had:

-Chicken Liver Toast (Ck's first time having liver, and she didn't hate it! I'm always a fan of liver, reminds me of my Omi)

-Marrow Bone, Chimichurri, Caramelized Onions (Ck's face was hilarious when she saw it was served from the bone. But she really liked this too. It was pretty good, the toppings were unbelievably flavorful. Probably my favorite marrow dish to date - still not in love Mr. Bourdain no matter what you say)

-Crispy Pig Head, Chow Chow, Sour Cream, Ginger-Scallion Vinaigrette (It's not what you're thinking, or what we were thinking, it's just a couple discs of fried pulled pig head meat. So different and good with all the components, especially the pickled vegetables of the Chow Chow)

-Beef Heart, Baba ganoush, lima bean, tomato, harissa (Ck really liked this. It was really fresh and herb-y, I thought mint maybe... surprised me. I told her she should now start cooking up the organs you get in whole roaster chickens. She did not seem to be as into that idea) :)

-BBQ Pork Belly Sandwiches, Slaw (SO GOOD. Of course this was irresistable because anything with any form of bacon on it is amazing. If we didn't have so much else to eat, I'm sure we eat could have cleaned a whole plate of these on our own. I've had some bad pork belly [at Againn in D.C. - I shudder at the thought of that tacky feeling, funky tasting dish I had years ago], but this refreshed my good opinion of pork belly. And as a temperate fan of slaw? I'll take that tangy bright topping from Animal any day of the week!)

-Poutine, Oxtail Gravy, Cheddar (Hoo, we got this as one of the last two dishes to come out and it was so rich and unctuous and impossible to eat at the end because we were just too full. It's the kind of delicious, naughty food you can imagine seeing on TV and thinking, I need to immediately leave the house and put this in my belly. Wish we had more room for this! By the way, if you don't know what poutine is, check this out for s&g's or this if you're looking for actual information)

-Braised Rabbit Legs, Green Beans, Mushrooms, Potato Puree, Mustard Jus (This was the most disappointing of the dishes. It looked beautiful. The green beans made it look like some architectural masterpiece. But taste wise? Just alright. Nothing mind blowing or unique here. If you like rabbit, you'll be pleased with it. But it was no where near all the other dishes, which were, as ridiculous as it sounds, other-worldly-good.)

-Tres Leches, Dulce de Leche (Picked on recommendation from just about everyone  including Michael Voltaggio of Ink., this cake was the perfect finish. Perfect amount, just as creamy and sweet as you want at the end of a massive meal. Lived up to every compliment)

All in all, such a great meal. They had these cute and kind of silly little glasses for beer and for their mint tea. The tea comes out in a french press which seemed appropriately hipster-y. Unfortunately I managed to break my french press and stab my foot with the falling glass. The waiter was very kind about it all. I didn't even realize it was falling glass (honestly, I didn't notice until the end of the meal when I tried to pour tea and it ran out everywhere through the broken glass. I thought someone had just dropped silverware on me!) Sorry about the press guys! Highly recommend this place. Be prepared to wait though, we were only able to get a 9:30 pm reservation, were told to come 15 mins early, and then had to wait until 9:50 pm under the heat lamp outside. Popular place - worth the wait.

On our own, Ed and I visited the Getty because he missed out on the family trip to check it out last year before Thanksgiving. We had a pretty good day and had a chance to see all the famous works and not get caught in too much traffic driving around.

Skyline

We hit up Matador Beach which was incredible. It looked like every California beach scene you've ever seen in the movies. I think I've mentioned it before, but you don't really notice it until you live in California - so many movies are so obviously filmed in California no matter where the plot claims they are... It's a struggle to find movies where they are outdoors and the trees actually look like east coast trees. It's hard to describe but once you've seen what the flora looks like out here, it's so very different than everything else on the east coast and middle America.

Ed's new home :)

We had brunch at Duke's which was awesome. Pretty much everything you could ever want: pancakes, poke, ceviche, waffles, sausages, chocolate strawberries, omelets, bagels and lox.... so much goodness.

After Ed left us we kept it pretty low key, went shopping (which was SO nice to do, I'm sure you can guess how enthusiastic Ed gets when I talk about clothes shopping...) and to Ed's relief we did not stroll into any Kate Spade or Ferragamo stores. Ck took me to her Salon and we got to play allllll day long. I don't know how she did it, she was on her feet for hours and hours. Started at 11 and finished at 6:30. I think the only thing we didn't do was strip my hair! (Fun fact, the longest I've been at a salon is 8 hours when I went in with long very dark brown hair and came out with very blonde, very short hair)

We did this smoothing treatment on my hair that Ck said changed her life and so far, I'm going to agree with her. I've never had such manageable hair. It reminds me of high school when the girls with great hair claimed that they just woke up and dried their hair without any fancy products or brushes. I remember thinking 'yeah right' at the time, but now? Man, having this treatment makes me think they weren't lying! Too bad I didn't have this back then. I told Ck I already think this is at the top of my birthday wishlist :) I think Kate from Ben & Kate is my current hair-spiration... not intentional but seems to be about right.

It was a really great visit and I'm sad it flew by so quick. I even made a new best friend with Ck's cat Creature. I love that little thing. It's so cute and weird and noisy, and that's pretty much love to me with animals. It even drools when it gets really happy. Such a special cat. There's also a hilarious video of me trying to babysit the dogs and creature and being tackled by all of them trying to get petted. It was a good visit!

Ck is home visiting Mom now for the holidays and she's under very serious instruction to somehow mail me back Omi's delicious dinner rolls. Those are my faaaavorite.

Poor Fonso was not interesting in joining the family picture :(

Creature! You drooly cute thing you!

Other than the visits, Ed and I have been preparing for the holidays and our mountain race coming up on the 8th. That should be interesting.... We did a long, steep hike this past weekend and my knee.... it was killing me on the downhill parts. Of course I forgot my brace and that is certainly never going to happen again. Either way, I'm determined to get back out there and do as much as I can. Below are some pictures from the hike.

South bay view from Los Gatos-ish

P.S. New Robbie Williams video, enjoy!