Times, they are a-changin’

It’s finally arrived- Inauguration Weekend is finally here! There’s been a really fun energy around DC for the past week or so…at least I think it’s fun energy- hopefully it just wasn’t DC-ers getting nervous about millions of people descending on the town. In any case, it’s been fun to see the city start preparing, and most of what people have been talking about are plans for the weekend and all of the things to do.

My inauguration weekend is relatively calm for a few days, and then things get a little nutty. Scott arrived yesterday from Illinois for a week-long stay with us, and is also the wonderful person who is supplying me with a coveted ticket to the inauguration. I haven’t decided if I’m going to try to brave the cold to go to the big concert tomorrow. Tomorrow night my friend Jason and his wife Jodie and two of their friends (whom I have never met but I’m sure are great people) are arriving from Omaha and Ohio respectively to stay with us for a few nights.

Monday isn’t planned yet either, although my wonderful husband may need to go to bed at 6PM to get up at 1:30AM to catch the last train out to crash at a store near his so he doesn’t have to try to deal with traffic and parking to be at his store by 3:45AM to open at 4:30AM on Tuesday. His store is near a bunch of swanky hotels, so hopefully he’ll at least get some fun celebrity sightings out of the whole deal. The trains start running at 4AM on Tuesday morning, and the Mall opens at the same time. Thankfully having a ticket means we won’t have to battle most of the people on the Mall to find a decent place- we get admitted to the West Lawn of the Capitol with the 240,000 lucky people who were able to get tickets. Those gates open at 9:00AM, but it was suggested we arrive by 8AM. The tickets are color-coded so we’ll have to enter at a certain gate- hopefully that system works well. I’m also SUPER glad things changed and my office building is going to be accessible on Tuesday so we have a place to warm up after standing outside for hours.

I doubt we’ll be able to get a good spot to see the inauguration parade- that route opens really early in the morning and I don’t think we’ll be able to squeeze in. I may very well need to go home and take a nap at that point, anyway. Tuesday night, Ryan, Scott and I have tickets to a Rock the Vote inauguration concert at the 9:30 Club, which should be awesome.

Lots of stories and pictures to come!

Eight days to go…

Approximate distance from my office to the U.S. Capitol (the dome is behind the trees):

Jersey barriers that were deposited in front of my office sometime over the weekend:

Welcome to the week before the Inauguration in DC!

My (very small) New York Times debut

On Thursday, I was very lucky to be able to attend a major speech given by President-Elect Obama. We received an invitation at work from the Obama Transition Team, and (you know me) I jumped at the chance. It was really fun to be there…I arrived pretty early to get a decent seat, and along with a colleague played “spot-the-politician” for about 45 minutes. We saw the governors of Virginia, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Michigan, the mayors of DC and NYC, Obama’s economic team, and, of course, President-Elect Obama.

Yesterday morning, the New York Times had a few pictures of the event, including one of the economic team. I am 99% sure you can see my head in the picture:

I know it’s small, but I’m a nerd and was pretty excited.

I was also super excited to see Dennis Kucinich in the hall in one of the House office buildings this week. I was trying to sidle in to meet him, but after talking with a new Congresswoman from Ohio, he ran off to do a TV interview. I did get to meet five new members of the House, including one who is Lutheran and I *think*, having read her bio, may have owned a yarn shop. She asked us to call and set up a meeting with her, so I’ll have to ask her about that then.

In non-politician news, I’ve really gotten into recipes and cooking the past few weeks. It’s been an interest of mine for a while, but having received several awesome cookbooks for Christmas really got me going. The Food Network has been on a ton in our house lately, and Ryan has even gotten into Top Chef and the crazy cake-making shows with me. I also started reading “The Botany of Desire” by Michael Pollan and was absolutely fascinated to learn about the history of the apple. And of course I get obsessed with food at the same time I decide to start Weight Watchers. We’ll see how that goes.

Happy New Year, all!

On the fifth day of Christmas…

I finally got around to blogging again! I’m emerging ever-so-slowly from a holiday-induced haze and am gearing up to face the world again…soon. December has been a month of craziness, some really good, some not so great. It started out with both Ryan and I getting a nasty head cold and being wiped out for a good couple of weeks, throw in a two-day staff meeting in Baltimore for me, add a really fun visit for several days of good friends, speed through a week of Christmas prep, celebrate a little pre-Christmas for Ryan and I (our first as a married couple!), land in the Midwest for a whirlwind trip of great family time and outrunning bad weather, return to the East Coast a day earlier than our luggage, and here we are at December 29th. Whew.

We have a bit of a breather this week…I’ll be working at home and Ryan is scheduled to have three days off this week (fingers crossed). Then we head into craziness again…Congress starts back on January 6th, meaning work is going to be really busy for me; we’re going to try to throw together a Golden Globes party on the 11th; we have a household of friends coming to visit for the inauguration, and, thanks to Scott, I’ll get to attend the inauguration! Probably no inauguration balls for us, though…they are EXPENSIVE.

Happy Holidays to all!

Holiday thoughts

It’s gotten a lot colder here in the DC area in the past week…not quite the 25 degree highs I experienced in Iowa last week, but I keep being told it’s much colder here much earlier than usual. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt, but let’s just say I’m anticipating the heating bill won’t be too forgiving in our not-well-insulated house.

Even though the house is chilly, it’s starting to be a little more festive with some holiday decorations going up. I haven’t done the silver tree yet- I was going to this afternoon but am quickly figuring out I’ve caught Ryan’s cold and have spent much of the afternoon flipping channels on the couch. I did make chocolate biscotti for the first time…I think it turned out OK. I was a little worried when I first tried it that it tasted burned, but after subsequent pieces (don’t ask how many), I think I’ve decided they’re not too bad. I haven’t done a big baking day yet, but am planning to try out new ginger cookies from a recipe I found in Cooking Light along with several other newish recipes. And the old standards, of course- fudge, mint fudge, sugar cookies, gingersnaps, snicker doodles. With the cold weather setting in, I pretty much just want to stay home and bake!

It’s an interesting holiday season this year for sure. It’s our first holiday season in our new house- finding new places to hang decorations, figuring out where to put the tree (which Harper has already started munching on, even though it’s still in its bag and not up yet). It’s our first holiday season far away from family- we still don’t know our travel schedule for Christmas, which is making me quite nervous. It’s our first holiday season in DC- Ryan was just remarking yesterday that he doesn’t know where to go to buy Christmas presents. We haven’t had much time to explore to find new and fun places, so Christmas shopping will be interesting.

And it’s our first holiday season without my dad. I wasn’t sure how that was going to affect me…of course I knew it would, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned besides how much it sucks to lose your dad, it’s that it hits you in ways you don’t expect at times you don’t expect it. Like at Thanksgiving…my family hasn’t celebrated Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving for years. For the past several years we’ve gathered sometime the weekend after Thanksgiving and had a soup supper, potluck, and this year a brunch. But while I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner for Ryan and I, I reached for a certain utensil and thought of my dad and bam, there were the tears. I often think of my dad, and feel his presense, while in the kitchen…he was a great cook and spent a lot of time there, especially after his retirement. Many of my phone calls home over the past years were to ask Dad cooking questions. Although I’m a much better baker than I am a cook, I’m guessing my desire to be in the kitchen baking these days has a little more to do than the aforementioned weather, but is also something that helps me cope, even just a little bit, with it being the first Christmas without my dad here.

I think, however, that he would have been quite proud of the Thanksgiving feast I put together for Ryan and I. While we missed our friends and family, in a way it was really nice to have just the two of us for Thanksgiving. I made a small turkey for Ryan (yes, a real turkey, and no, I didn’t enjoy it) and a Tofurky roast for me, lots of sides (including an amazing roasted root vegetable dish that was amazing, courtesy of a recipe from our friend Laura), with pumpkin pie to finish it off. Ryan’s grandma was so kind as to give me her recipe, and I was thrilled that it turned out, as I am not a whiz at pies. Here’s the ridiculous amount of food we had for two people:

It was a lot of fun, and was, for whatever reason, one of those “wow, we’re really married” moments.

I’m off for another round of Emergen-C and to pop in a movie for some forced r&r/hopefully-get-well-time. One more chocolate biscotti and Love Actually should make me feel better, right?