A Tale of One Apartment, Expressed by Pics from Pinterest

Remember the Great Apartment Search? Well it is OVER. For the last couple of weeks I have felt like this:

Which has pretty much made me want to do this:

But today at noon we got the call saying that we will be moving into an adorably quirky apartment near Eastern Market with hardwood floors and a sun porch. I am so relieved that I pretty much feel like this:

I’m also pretty excited that we ended up finding a place big enough to avoid feeling like this:

I mean, it isn’t so grand as this:

Nor does it have quite as much light as this: 

Nor does it have sinks full of kittens awaiting us like this:

But it will be our first home. It doesn’t need to be mansion, or have so many windows that we live bathed in pools of light, or have sinks of furry friends. It doesn’t need to be fancy, or have all the newest furniture (which is good, because it won’t!). It just needs to be a space for us to start the life long process of two people building one home. 

(Pictures all from Pinterest. You can see all of my boards here.)

Super Powers

If James could have a super power, he would want to fly. I, on the other hand, would obviously want to talk to animals.

When James asked me why, I explained how much easier life would be. (“Mouse, please don’t come out of your hiding place or I will be forced to set traps and kill your sweet self.” “Kitties, if you would stop pooping under my car, I would stop putting crushed red pepper flakes all over the driveway.”)  To this, the love of my life laughed at me and told me that he is pretty sure that animals would have nothing to say other than “EAT. REPRODUCE. FLEE.”

Obviously, he is wrong, which I know, because I attempt to talk to all animals I encounter, and I am pretty sure it is working. As evidence I offer the following pictures. I noticed an especially plucky little squirrel friend trotting along the steps and I called out to him in my pseudo creepy animal voice and HE CAME OVER.  Here you can see him about to climb into my hand and become my Best Squirrel Friend For Life.

Unfortunately, I was so excited by my super power that I screamed with joy, and my Best Friend took off.  My enthusiasm was too much for his pea-sized brain. I am giving you a close up so you can see my scream. Note that, despite the miracle at hand, James does not even shift his facial expression.

 Let the record show that if you talk, the animals listen.

Overwhelmed by PINK

Pink is the color of spring in DC.

I suppose that pink is a common spring color, but I have never been as overwhelmed by its presence as I have this year in DC.

Obviously, everyone thinks of the pink cherry blossom trees, but as I have whined about several times, they came early and died quickly. When I got back from spring break, this was what was left: 

But I have a secret: other than in concentrated areas (like the Tidal Basin) where they draw strength in numbers, I am not that impressed by the cherry blossoms. They are pinkish, but not as brilliant as the crab apple trees that overwhelm you with their bright pink bushy flowers, looking like natural cotton candy. Or the japenese magnolias that boast stately pink leaves that lose there smell quickly, as if in punishment, if you have the audacity to pluck them from a tree.

Or these trees, the redbud tree (I think – gardener, I am not.), who are so impatient to fill the world with color that they sprout flowers the entire length of their trunks, not just at the end of their branches.

The magazine Real Simple recently had a great article about tree loving of this type. Colette (a French author whom I love) once wrote to her mother asking that she come visit, but her mother declined, explaining that her favorite tree was in bloom. Rather than being annoyed, Colette later explained that she was proud to be the daughter of the woman that wrote that letter. Looking at trees like these makes me understand both Colette and her mother. 

The Great Apartment Search

“We could always grab a tent and take up with the occupiers in McPhereson Square.”

This is what I tell James when we get really discouraged about finding an apartment, THE apartment, our first apartment together. It doesn’t need to be fancy or big, as we don’t really have high expectations or lots of stuff. But it does need to not be too far from a metro, have at least one window, and not smell like rotting socks and smoke. Oh, and it needs to be cheap enough for a Hill staffer and a graduate student.

It turns out that this is asking a lot, and the past couple weeks have been consumed with disappointing leads on Craigslist that turn out to be scams, gorgeous apartments that ended up being thousands more than they were listed online, or super grungy row houses effectively slaughtering my dreams of a cozy newlywed bungalo.

One night James and took a long walk through Capital Hill, ending at the deserted steps of the Capital. We sat, bemoaning the housing situation, and talked about how we could always move out to the suburbs. This plan quickly died. Partially for practical logistic reasons, but mostly because of how much we are both coming to love the city. It was a tough road to this point, especially for me, who instinctively rejects any big city that isn’t Paris.

But little by little, despite its illogical interstate system, perpetual constriction, and obscene taxes, the city has crept into my heart. I love jogging around Lincoln Park, grabbing burgers with James throughout the city, and spending quiet nights in front of the Capital like this one. I love walking through the matrices of row houses, browsing bookstores in Eastern Market, and being reminded of the many things that Americans can be proud of at every turn. In talking about the many reasons why we wouldn’t want to move out of the city yet, I was surprised by how much I am coming to appreciate it.

Pictures on this post are by Rachel.

Eastern Market

When Rachel was visiting a couple weeks ago, the weekend of the race and shower, we took Sunday evening for a long walk through Eastern Market. (And yes, I am drawing that one weekend of fun into multiple posts. It is nearing the end of the semester, and you don’t really want posts about me writing papers.)

I love Eastern Market. I love the colors, the bustling activity of yuppie people shopping for marked up produce, the venders hawking jewelry and clothing, and the flea market where you can rummage around for old treasures.  Walking through the crowded market you can’t help but feel apart of something colorful, vibrant, alive, old, new. It is that distinctly unique market community.

besties in stripes and shades

leeks and hydrangeas

the indoor market where James likes to look at all the gross fish

the counter where you can buy delicious greasy food

cannoli from the little bakery in the indoor market

Run, run, as fast as you can

Confession: I am a master manipulater. I blame it on being a middle child and I learned it from my mother (also a middle child) who can have you finishing something you swore you would never do before you even remember beginning. Genius.

Anyway, remember this picture of my beautiful bridesmaids who threw me that great shower?

 Well here is how the three of us looked the next morning at 6:30 am as we trudged across the National Mall to run the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.

 That’s right, Rachel agreed to fly across the country, bake all day for my shower, then get up insanely early the next to hike around holding a sign that had the simple slogan of “RUN!!!”  I either have the world’s best friends, or the world’s most easily persuaded friends.

The conversation to convince Suze to run the race with me went something like this, which I have pulled off her post about the whole affair:

Hannah: Suze, wanna do the Cherry Blossom Run with me?

Me: Ummm…sure!  I love me a good 5k!

Hannah: Actually it’s 10 miles!  We will run together and it will be so much fun.

Me:  Oh, no thanks.  I don’t run long distances.

Hannah:  You can totally do it!  10 miles isn’t that far!  PLUS, it’s the only way you’ll get to truly enjoy the famous cherry blossoms…the roads will be cleared for us to run below that beautiful pink canopy and you can drink it all in!  Any other time, there are so many tourists that you can’t see past the sea of cameras.  Don’t you want to see the cherry blossoms?

Me: errr…ummm…dang…yeah, I do.  Are you sure I can run 10 miles?

Hannah: Yes!  Of course!  Anyways, you have to enter a lottery to get in the race…a million people enter and only like 20,000 get drawn!  See, our chances aren’t even that high…but we should try!

Me: hmm, yeah, the chances aren’t that high.  Ok, I’ll enter with you!  (hehehe…because obviously we won’t actually get chosen)…

 But then spring came early and all the blossoms were already gone, swirling around our feet like morbid confetti as we ran. (However, this did lead to the great sign someone was holding that said “There are no more blossoms, but you all are AWESOME!”)

James on the other hand only agreed to run it because he was buying time before our engagement. I was at the point where I was dissolving in tears about every other day waiting and pining, so he felt that agreeing to run this race would buy him at least a couple days for the ring to arrive.  I should probably explain that James HATES running, and never ended up doing more than 3 miles in training. I tried explaining that if he would think about something other than how much he hates running while he runs, it might go better. James’ plan was to finish the race at the 5k mark… but someone (me) read the map wrong and James ended up doing 6 miles before just exiting the course and declaring himself done. (He still loves me though, which is a sure sign that I should marry him. )

Thus here is our gang: James, Susannah, Sarah (my marathon running roomie who needed no persuading) and me.

Somehow I got a bib with a fast starting time so Sarah and I switched.

See Rachel cheering? She’s a champ.

You know those “what I think I look like/ what I actually look like” things? Well here is the truth. Though I imagine myself a swift running gazelle, I actually look like a super power walker with goofy facial expressions. 

Our post race pic. In the second one of me and James, he is allowing his actual feelings about running to shine through. And Sarah looks that cute and composed because she had already been done for quite some time.

I am planning on convincing them to run it with me next year. Maybe Suze will forget that all the blossoms were dead…

2 comments on Easter from those who said it well

“He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so. This is the beginning of the New Creation: a new chapter in cosmic history has opened.” – C.S. Lewis Miracles

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I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre,
The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,
And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away—
Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;
Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing—
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

-T.S. Eliot from “East-Coker”