Weekend in D.C.

To my delight, my dear friend Virginia, a friend from Cate, moved to D.C. about a month ago with her new husband, Jorge, whom she met while she was working in Colombia. Virginia used to live in San Francisco, so when I was in California I'd see her sometimes, but since my move to New York I hadn't seen her at all. She didn't go to Camp Cate because she'd gotten married the weekend before and was en route to D.C. by car, so I was excited when our schedules lined up so that it would work out for me to spend the weekend in D.C. with her.

The Bolt, the bus I usually take to Boston, also goes to D.C., so it was a snap to get down there, and I took the Metro out to Virginia's neighborhood with no difficulty at all. I used to go to D.C. at least once a year to watch Anthony play water polo when he was in college, but we stuck around the George Washington area mostly. While I liked seeing him, I wasn't a huge fan of the city. But Virginia lives in an area called Columbia Heights, which I liked very much. We made dinner and chatted until bedtime, then headed to a nearby farmers' market the next morning while Jorge cooked a Colombian breakfast for us of arepas and scrambled eggs with corn, tomatoes, and onions. It was delicious, and we had a great conversation about international current events; Virginia is a big fan of The Economist. We went on a hike around a nearby park in the afternoon, then took showers back at her apartment before onces, which is sort of like a Latin American teatime during which we drank tea, ate muffins, and talked about Spanish prepositions (which was actually fascinating). Then we had dinner at a Peruvian restaurant.

As luck would have it, when I called my brother for his birthday last week, I mentioned that I was going to be in D.C. this weekend and he said that he and Jane had the same plan. Further, not only was he also staying in Columbia Heights, his friend's house turned out to be two blocks from Virginia and Jorge's apartment. We met them for drinks after dinner and had a great time. I met two of Anthony and Jane's friends who used to work with Jane at a law firm in D.C. and they were great. Virginia and Jorge begged out early, as they had a yoga class in the morning, but they gave me a key to their place and so I got to stay out with Anthony's crew until quite late.

The next morning, Virginia and Jorge headed to their yoga class and I headed to DuPont Circle to meet my friend Shannon. Shannon and I met in second grade when she started at St. Paul's. I hadn't seen her for a few years, but we had a great brunch and I'm hoping to see more of her now that we've reconnected. Her brother lives in New York, so that's further incentive for us to cross paths during my remaining year on the east coast.

Now that Anthony and Jane will be moving away from Boston, I think I'll make fewer weekend trips there. D.C. may be a nice alternative destination.