Peaches

Last Saturday, we headed out about an hour west of DC to go fruit picking. We found some delicious peaches, as well as some chard and tomatoes. It was so fun, despite the blistering heat. By the end, we all kind of wanted to pass out. But at least they were tasty!

We also saw a calf. I wanted to bring it home with us. Dan thought it would prefer being with its mama-cow.

On the way home, we stopped by the Marriott Ranch for a Pioneer Day celebration. We then followed our GPS across treacherous, non-state-maintained roads that are definitely intended for large vehicles possessing 4-wheel drive. We have a Nissan Sentra. Oh well. At least we made it.

And now I present the last couple weeks' worth of bump pictures:

27 Weeks:


28 Weeks:

Driving in DC

I would say I've done my fair share of driving. I grew up mostly in Alabama, where kids were allowed to get a driving permit the day they turned 15, and their license when they turned 16 (no supervised driving hours - or even driver's ed - required. I dearly hope this has since changed.). I was lucky enough to be able to drive to and from school in Utah after that, and often made multiple trips around town for both me and my little sister. I didn't drive a ton through college due to living in a city with limited parking, but after graduation, I started a job that required a 45 minute - 1h15m commute each way through crowded city streets, random back ways, and winding river roads.

In all of these driving experiences, I have never met drivers worse than those in the nation's capital.

Now, I remind you - I lived in Philadelphia for 7 years, and drove 10+ hours a week for 3 of those. I lived and commuted in Los Angeles for a summer during college. I've driven in New York City, Boston, and probably at least half of the country's states. But really, DC drivers just hit an all-time low.

They regularly honk at you for not moving even when traffic is completely blocked. They get angry when you have to merge into a lane even though you have no other choice and they just did the exact same thing. And while I regularly complained about driving in Philly, drivers there were, at least, somewhat skilled, if rather aggressive. Drivers in DC are aggressive AND lack skills.

Take, for instance, a couple of days ago. I was driving down a main street by my house to pick up a friend. She lives on a relatively small street, a little bit past a stoplight. Like I had been taught, I got into the rightmost lane of the three available well ahead of time. I waited until I had made my way through the stoplight, and then turned on my right turn signal. I slowed down in order to safely make my turn. This is the point at which the woman behind me LAID on her horn for a good 10 seconds. Can somebody please explain this to me?

Ugh.

Grounds, Philly, & S'mac

This weekend was crazy, CRAZY FUN! And crazy crazy. Friday Dan was very sweet and took the train up to where I work and so we could have lunch together (at Taqueria La Morana). It was decidedly less good than Tortillas, where we went a couple of weeks before. Apparently we've decided to check out every seemingly authentic Mexican restaurant in a 10 mile radius of my office.

Dan hung out and got some work done in the library for the afternoon, and then we took off to drive down to Virginia. Rather, stand still in traffic for an hour on the 476, and then drive. We stopped off at my parents' house in NoVa to have a yummy Indian dinner which my mom extraordinarily graciously and spontaneously prepared when we said we were hungry, despite having "closed the kitchen" several hours before. My sweet dad was particularly concerned about us continuing the drive so late at night (it was 9:30pm by the time we departed) but we decided to tough it out since our time at UVA was already going to be so short.

Luckily, traffic around those southern Virginia parts is slim to none, and virtually the only time we slowed to the speed limit was when a cop was driving several hundred yards in front of us. I really dislike driving around cops, it makes me nervous and antsy and I keep looking at them to see if they're looking at me. I can't bring myself to pass them, even if they're driving under the speed limit. So I hung back and another more courageous car pulled up even and slowly passed the cop, going at most 5 miles over. I was starting to get seriously annoyed with the cop who was just cruising along, and I was starting to wonder how long I'd have to endure the unspeakable pain of going the speed limit when all of a sudden, he pulled the other guy over. Yikes. I felt bad for the dude since he really wasn't going fast, anyway, but I was somewhat unkindly happy for the fact that the cop would no longer prevent me from going any speed I darn well pleased.

So we arrived at UVA at around 11:30 and set up shop and promptly went to sleep. Mmm sleep. For a long time. We finally woke up the next morning and got ready at an excessively leisurely pace and went to eat breakfast/brunch/lunch at Cafe Europa. Mmm yummy sandwich and tomato basil soup. Then we went to downtown Charlottesville and walked around and window shopped in little antique shops and bought giraffe scissors and "hankies" and patronized a closing Crabtree & Evelyn. We then hurried back to "grounds" for a quick dinner at Lemongrass, some of the best Thai food I've eaten. I'm sad to admit that their lemongrass curry and buckwheat noodles kicked Pattaya Grill and Thai Singha's trash.

Then on to sadly missing Priya's friend's show due to the fact that we couldn't find the theatre until 10 minutes after the start time. Presented with the fact that there was no late seating (due to the fact that the entrance opens onto the stage...uh??? who had that idea?) and no intermission, we went back and watched The Office. Oh how I can't wait until April 10th.

Sunday morning, we drove back up to Philly (4 hours!) and had lunch with two of my old suitemates, Meg and Liz. Both were back in town briefly, so we caught them before they headed to Boston/Miami and NYC, respectively. Then church for 3 hours, during which Dan organized a lesson, and then we departed for New York City for our friend Nastya's birthday at the restaurant S'mac. Who would've ever thought there could be a whole entire restaurant wholly devoted to macaroni & cheese? It was glorious - goat cheese, gruyere, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower...magnificent.

Then we drove home. And went to sleep. Apparently I'm still not alert enough to come up with a clever ending. So, the end.

Philly Driving

We really adore Philadelphia. There are so many things about it that make us extraordinarily happy, such as Boathouse Row, Reading Terminal, Scannicchio's, etc. Philly driving, however, tends to make me want to stick a fork in my ear and pulverize my left brain, the part that is rational and wants people to drive in straight lines and not stop in the middle of a single-lane road and use turn signals. For instance, here are some things that have happened in the last, I am not even kidding you, 12 hours.

• This morning, as I was leaving for work, this man was pulling out of a parking spot in my lot. Now granted, it was a kind of tight spot, but presumably, if he's parked there, he must do it relatively regularly (considering it's a private lot). But he decided to turn slightly to get around the brick wall...very very very slowly. But okay, the brick wall is kind of intimidating, so all right, take your time. But then he stopped. In front of the gate. And didn't do anything. And continued to stand still. Not moving. For FIVE MINUTES. He just stood there! In case I wasn't clear, he continued to sit in his car unmovingly and not exiting through the gate. And then when I opened the gate from behind him since he wasn't, and he inched forward to the gate (was he scared of it?) and then nosed his hood through and then stood there again. Even though there was NO ONCOMING TRAFFIC. AHHHGG.




• Yesterday, I was driving home from West Philly down South Street and I got to the 15th block (the same one where a guy rear-ended me and we got to witness a heroin addict jump on random cars and lie down in the middle of the road, and where, in a separate incident, a guy tried to climb into my car and started beating my windows when I wouldn't let him...but that's a subject for another post) and there was not one or two or three or four but FIVE buses parked in the middle of this single-lane road completely stopped with a random white blinky light on top. Mind you, this was not in the middle of the day for a potential school trip, but rather at ten-thirty at night. What were they doing there? No idea. How do people get through there? They don't.

• Each day, I take Lincoln Drive to work. It's a super curvy and beautiful road that goes through parts of Fairmount Park. The cars in the morning tend to drive between 25 to 40 miles over the speed limit since it's a 25 zone and they drive it each and every day. There are also an abundance of blind turns so you really have no idea what's waiting for you around the bend. This morning it was a pair of geese just strolling along. The funniest part was that they didn't actually CROSS the road. Instead, they just hung out in the middle of it walking right along the white dividing line, going along their merry way. The best part was that it completely halted traffic as drivers waited for the geese to finish their morning promenade. It was rather cute.

Those are just the semi-unusual happenings - completely disregarding the normal throw-your-hazards-on-in-the-middle-of-the-street-and-leave-your-car-ness. (Which I was once encouraged to do. By a police officer.) It's going to be tough driving anywhere else - if I go on a trip, it's always so liberating to come back to Philly and feel like I speed and run blatantly red lights and park illegally again. :)