I flew out on Friday morning and raved about the benefits of flying and getting to BWI in like an hour and a half. Y'all, it's just glorious. It's the second time I've foregone the eight billion hour (okay more like 7-ish but it feels like 8 billion) drive up. Flying in general makes me feel really fancy and important, even if my ticket only cost me a little over a hundred dollars round trip.
When I got to Baltimore, we kicked things off with some sushi, salad and tempura in Lia's neighborhood. You better brace yourself because roughly 90% of my weekend was devoted to eating, thinking about what I was going to eat next, and complaining about how miserable I was due to having eaten so much. Go make a snack, don't read hungry.
Right after sushi, we decided to walk around DuPont Circle a bit and lo and behold, there stood a Krispy Kreme. Ever since I saw the announcement for the new banana donuts, I've been desperately needing one. Desperately.
And clearly, I got my wish - both a banana caramel cake donut and a banana cream pie donut. Amazing. I think I like the caramel cake better. But it's hard to say for sure. They're both amazing in their own way. The banana cream pie has some coconut undertones, more of a delicious tropical feel, while the caramel cake has more of a maple-caramel, warm flavor. Both amazing.
We headed over to happy hour for Lia's birthday at The Mighty Pint, and were not ashamed to start happy hour at 3pm. I mean, it was a Friday. And also spring break. And I'm also a last-semester 3L now, so I should really have happy hours down to a science at this point. I finally got to meet Liz! A good time was had by all, amplified by yet more amazing food (i.e. chicken tenders and tater tots). The service was not amazing, but we survived and they get 10 bonus points from me for having Trivial Pursuit cards on every table. I told Lia I wanted to memorize all of them before everyone got there so as to seem real smart when they did, but Trivial Pursuit always brings me down a notch. Pretty sure I know about 3% of the answers and those are guesses. We left the bar at about 6, and for some reason it felt like midnight to me, so when we emerged from the basement bar back onto the street, and it was still daylight, I'm pretty sure I gasped in shock. Strange feeling. Anywho.
The rest of the night? Laser tag. Let me tell you, I am about too old for laser tag. I'm certainly not in good enough shape. There was a lot of running and squatting after too many beers and chicken tenders and several times I just considered using my giant plastic laser gun to physically assault some of the more annoying tweens playing. But it was lots of fun, and perhaps my favorite moment was shooting this girl who was about thirteen who kept just standing out in the open. And then she'd whine, "Omigod, STOP shooting meeee!" So while otherwise I might have turned my attention to someone else, I just shrugged and kept firing. Teehee. Turns out I'm thirteen too.
Saturday was devoted to Doing Things I Can't Do in North Carolina. Such as:
1) Going to Moby Dick (or That Whale Place as I affectionately call it) and eating pretty much all of that delicious bread seen below. I know, you think that looks like regular pita bread. Let me assure you that it is not. It is chewy and delicious and amazing and perfect and I'm in love.
2) Going to H&M. I know, you are going to think I live under a rock. But we just don't have H&M and I love that place. Lia got me a gift card for my birthday, so it was off to spend it! I got a cute little blue top with rolled sleeves for summer and - wait for it - got my first maxi dress. I have long been opposed to them because I feel they make me look short. But then I determined that because the dress is 2 or 3 inches too long for me, I could just wear my giant platform shoes with it, have them covered by the dress, and then BAM, everyone thinks I am actually really tall. Sounds like a plan, huh?
3) Having Lia's birthday party! Okay I guess technically that's something we could do in North Carolina, but you have to pick a theme and stick with it. It was a 20th century pop costume party, and of course I came to DC sans costume, but a trip to Wal-Mart fixed that. My prerequisites for a character were a) being able to wear a lot of my own clothes or at least not buying much to haul back with me and b) being comfortable. So - a five dollar Wal-Mart plaid shirt later - I was Shania Twain! Technically, I feel she's more pop than country, and it meant wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and boots! Win!
Lia's party also meant drinking sangria through a silly straw. Something else I don't do at home but highly recommend.
Other things I can't do here but wish I could? Go to Mongolian Barbecue. Amazing, amazing. The concept is, you go to their giant buffet full of raw meat (steak, sausage, chicken, shrimp, calamari, Krab, you name it), grab some pasta and some vegetables, and pick a sauce. Then you give it to one of the guys at this big circular grill and they grill all of your stuff together and throw your sauce on it. Did I mention you can rinse and repeat this process as many times as you want to? Well, you can. And that makes me happy.
I also got a lot chilling and knitting done this weekend, which are high priority spring break activities for me. Was pleasantly surprised to find out how much I love Parks and Rec, which is available on Netflix Instant! Was also pleased to discover how cute When in Rome is, and happily revisited Ever After and remembered why it's one of my favorite movies.
And I finished a healing shawl for church! We knit these big shawls to give to people who are sick, who have had surgery, or who are going through a hard time like losing a family member. I was super pleased with how this one turned out, the color is perfecto! Also this picture allows you to see my pink polka dot PJ pants, otherwise known as my uniform for 75% of the weekend.
I got back to BWI on Monday night, all pumped for my short flight home. I was telling my grandmother this on the phone when the cute little old lady with the Oprah tote bag sitting across from me looked up from her romance novel and said, "Oh honey, you won't be home at 6:30. Our plane's delayed. It won't even be in Baltimore by then." Whoops. Turns out our plane was stuck in Charlotte with "mechanical difficulties" and didn't show up for over an hour. Then when it got here, turns out someone had barfed all over the plane and it had to be hosed down. Lovely! When the plane finally boarded, we were all a bunch of crankypants.
When the flight attendant came over the PA system and announced that we needed to load our bags as quickly as possible or immediately bring them to a flight attendant because "we are running behind schedule, and we have a lot of passengers and not a lot of room in these overhead bins" I almost pulled a Ben Stiller.
Lady, I am not checking my bag. And those of us (as in, all of us except you) who have been waiting in this airport in Baltimore trying to get home are well aware that we are behind schedule. So don't you take my bag. And no one did. Thankfully.
Also when you've just been told that your plane has mechanical difficulties, it doesn't make for such a stress-free flight home. I am increasingly becoming an old lady who white-knuckles the seat arms, looks out the window and thinks, "Humans are not supposed to be up here. This giant billion pound plane should not be flying. How does this work? *Brain exploding*" Every little bump we hit meant certain plane crash, in my opinion.
But thankfully, there was no plane crash, my mind continued to be blown by the laws of physics as they apply to airplanes, and I made it safely back to the airport, to be met by a very excited Peggy Sue, and a somewhat comparatively less excited PB.
So there you have it - massive, ginormous DC weekend recap! Hope you all are having a lovely week!
