Into the abyss

View of Cannon from the 1st and Penn entrance. Actually, I lied. That's not 1st, it's something else.

I went up to the 5th floor of Cannon today to get a fan out of our “cage.” I would never want to work on that floor. The halls are narrower and the ceilings shorter putting off a feeling of lesser grandeur than the rest of the building. There aren’t as many officees because of the cages (storage rooms) so there aren’t as many colorful flags lining the walls. It’s a little dreary and not as awe inspiring as my walk down the 2nd or 4th floors of Cannon. It makes me realize how thankful I am to be nestled into a great office on the 4th floor. Oh Cannon HOB…Sigh… But it sure would be fun to spend a couple of hours in the cage pilfering through all the random memorabilia and such that's just collecting dust in the storage unit. Maybe one of these days.

In other news, I'm headed to Vegas this weekend for a soccer tournament with my Flagstaff team. Hopefully on the plane I can get caught up on all the cool (Urban Dare) and not-so-cool (the mouse saga) happenings and post them to the blog Tuesday when I get back.

I'm going to Boston!

I just purchased two tickets to see Renee Fleming in Eugene Onegin out in Burkeshire. WooHoo!! I'm so excited! So I'm headed up to Boston on August 1st and staying with Megan for the weekend. She's coming with me to see it! I haven't seen her since she moved out East a year ago so this should be good times for sure. And it's Renee Fleming so YAY!

The Final Scene from the Met's 2007 production.

It's official!!!

Mel and I are such bad asses!!!

Our Urban Dare finish time is officially posted at 2:26:04 making us the #17th finishers out of like a lot of teams!!! Not bad for two Arizonans!

All the pictures are on Mel's camera and she's in Denver for a few days. Hopefully I can get pics and details up before I head out to Vegas on Friday. We are so awesome!

Urban Dare Today

Mini "Amazing Race" style. Pictures and stories soon to follow.

Quantico Revisited

Sam (HS Sam) called me Wednesday night of last week and asked what I was doing over the weekend. “No plans. Just hoping to relax after a crazy weekend in AC.” She was headed to the in-laws with my godson for the weekend, and I said to count me in!

I hopped on the train Friday evening and was in Quantico by 8:00. We had some grub, watched some tv, bathed little David and called it a night. The next day, we went to a little conference thing with Sam’s mother-in-law. When we got back, we cooked dinner, played with the little dude, then played cards till 1:00 in the morning.

Steve, Sam’s father-in-law, cooked us a big breakfast. I packed my stuff up, and Sam took me to the train station. I got home, unpacked my stuff, then went and saw Macbeth. A pretty super awesome weekend, if you ask me.

I love visiting Sam because it’s always a great time to just relax and have a nice, low key weekend. And David is sooooo flippin cute!! He’s crawling now, and he can pull himself up, and with a little help he can walk. I love that kid! Can’t wait to see him (probably walking) in a month.

As soon as a get a picture from Sam of little David, I’ll post it. Yay for godsons and best friends!!!

The Standoff

First of all, Dad, it is NOT a rat. It's a mouse. I've stared it down.

Day Four
A quiet evening at home turned into a thirty minute standoff with my mouse. While the 3rd and 4th acts of Otello played in the background, I stood on my chair in the corner of my room, broom in hand, waiting for the mouse to show itself. As it scurried from behind my bookcase to the dresser and under my bed several times, I was never able to get a good shot at it to whack it with the broom. When Laura got home, we set the traps and I slept in Mel's bed again (she was still in Italy).

Day Five
The mouse ate the peanut butter off the mouse trap we placed behind the couch, but there was no mouse. I left for the weekend so I put any thoughts of the mouse out of my head.

Day Seven
While staring out the window talking to my mom, I watched our landlord take the trash out. As soon as she came back inside, I saw a little mouse run from the same direction. "Sweet!" I thought, "It's out of my house." As it ran across the street, I secretly hoped that it would get ran over by a car so I would no longer have this rodent plaguing me. I didn't see the mouse when I came home from Macbeth, so I put my headphones on and went to bed, hoping I wouldn't be visited during the night.

Day Eight
Mel and I got back from the grocery store, and as she put away her wares I was getting her caught up on my mouse issue. While telling my adventure, I point to underneath my bed, and in the shadows we both spot the mouse. Figuring the mouse would stay in my room, we continued to put away groceries. The mouse comes running past my feet. We both scream and I run into the living room. I just stand there. Mel’s talking to her mom and starts pointing at my feet. I freak out and jump on the couch because the mouse has run past my feet again! I swear this mouse has something against me, which I don’t know why because I keep feeding it peanut butter. The landlord comes up because she’s heard our screams and hands us some rat poison. She also said that mice don’t like the smell of dryer sheets. I reloaded the mouse traps with peanut butter and placed one in the kitchen and one behind the couch. I placed several dryer sheets along the threshold of my room and one at each of my bed posts. I put my headphones on again and reluctantly climbed into bed.

Day Nine
The peanut butter was gone from both traps. We are dealing with a genius here that is bound and determined to taunt me. Before going to bed super late, I spotted the mouse. It ran from behind the couch and as soon as it saw me, ran right back. So now this is war! I grabbed the rat poison, covered it in peanut butter and placed it on the mouse trap.

Day Ten
The peanut butter was licked clean off the rat poison. I had a dream that the mouse came into my room. I was wielding a broom, so I started hitting it. I swept it down the stairs and it hit several on the way down. Then I smacked it until it was dead. As gross as the mouse is, there is still a cute quality to it that I don’t think I could do that. But rat poison? No problem!

Day Twelve
Haven’t seen the mouse since Tuesday night. Maybe the rat poison took care of business. However, there are weird noises throughout the house that I swear is my mouse walking behind the walls. If I start smelling something weird, I’ll know something worked. But if nothing works and my mouse is still alive, I might just have to name it and continue feeding it peanut butter. Maybe I’ll name it PB&J.

$$$ Cha-ching $$$

So with a pretty hefty tax return and the stimulus rebate that's headed my way, I've got some awesome opera prospects coming my way. Thais for sure - it's got to be my fave opera so I can't wait to see it staged. And of course it's starring none other than Renee Fleming. Maybe I can squeeze in her performance of Eugene Onegin at Tangelwood and if there's a chance of scoring a ticket for the Met's opening night gala, then I'm so there! Plus RF in Lucrezia Borgia, November at the KC! And even though it's a year away, Rusalka would be awesome too. And then whatever else comes along.

So exciting!!! Yay for tax returns. Now it'll just be forever and a day until I receive them...

Yuck!

There are some times when I curse my procrastination. This is definitely one of those times. I planned on going to Vegas to meet up with my Flagstaff soccer team for a tournament long before I got settled in to my new place in DC. A smart person would have purchased their plane ticket as soon as possible. I however, am not a smart person.

I leave next Friday after work and was hoping to come home Sunday late afternoon when the tournament was over. I just got my tickets today. $435 - OUCH!!! And I don't come home until Monday. Granted, the cost of airline tickets is up overwhelmingly across the board anyways, but I'm sure if I had been a little more proactive I could've gotten a ticket for $300.

Ah, c'est la vie.

To see, or not to see? I stopped asking the question.

I live about two blocks away from the Folger Shakespeare Library. I walk past it to and from work everyday. There has been a banner above the theatre entrance announcing the run of Macbeth. For whatever reason, Macbeth has been my favorite of Shakespeare’s tragedies and I thought it would be cool to see it. A review appeared in Roll Call, a hill rag that we get at work, raving the awesomeness of this production. Teller, the magician from the famous Penn and Teller duo was a co-conceiver and designer and the magic designer for this production. The run was completely sold out from the onset and it was extended an extra week even before it began back in February. If you didn’t have tickets from the get go, the only way to get in was standing room. So pretty much, this was the play to be seeing.

I told myself so many times that I would find a friend to see it and wait in line for tickets. I’d done it before on a much larger scale (see “Standing in line because we’re awesome” or “Root, root, root for the home team”) and it’s Macbeth! And Teller! And it’s two blocks from my house! But I never went. But I always wanted to.

The last week of the run finally came. I decided I was going to go. And here’s how it needed to work out. Usually the performance was at 7:00 or 7:30 and the box office opened an hour before to purchase the standing room tickets. People lined up at least a half hour prior to that. There isn’t a show on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday were booked for receptions and Wednesday soon went that way as well. Friday I was planning on heading to Quantico to visit Sam and the godson (more on that later) which left only Sunday. I got back into town around 1:30 and decided I was going. That’s it, I’m doing it. So I did.

I left my house right before 5:00 to and sat on the marble staircase – number 4 in line. I chatted with the others for a few minutes, but it was mostly just awkward silence. I wanted to listen to my music, but I thought that would be rude in case someone actually did want to talk. The box office opened, I got my ticket, and I went home. I would be in standing room so I wasn’t going to stand around needlessly for an hour when I could go home and grab a quick dinner and sit for a moment.

The theatre was pretty awesome. It’s all old looking with huge wood pillars and plush red seats. It’s a small, very quaint theatre and the view was pretty good.

I don’t think the reviews did it justice. Don't get me wrong, the reviews for it were awesome, but it was even better than that. Macbeth was pretty much Ah-MAZING!!! It was non-stop action from the start. The set was awesome, the choreography so realistic, the magical elements extraordinary and the acting exquisite. It was so dark, and truly realistic. You couldn’t help but cringe or look away when someone was being stabbed.

Since the theatre is pretty small, the actors utilize every bit of it, including the aisle ways. I don’t remember the character, but he was like a drunken idiot who passed on some info to Macbeth’s people. Anywho, he totally interacted with the crowd. Asked us some knock, knock jokes. I know you’re asking how that fits into Macbeth, but believe me, it works. It continued from there, and let’s just say it ended with one of the ladies in the audience rubbing his bum. Now aren’t you wishing you were there?!!

I really can’t put into words how exciting and awesome this production was. I’m just so glad I finally made my way over to see it. Here’s a link to a review for a brief interview with Teller: http://www.folger.edu/pr_preview.cfm?prid=212&is_archived=0

Let the receptions begin

This has been a busy week of receptions. We get so many invites it’s hard to stay on top of them all..

On Tuesday, Janelle and I went to the Natural Products Day reception. Because of votes, we couldn’t break away to make it right when the reception started, so we missed out on the free goodie bag. But they still had hors d’oeuvres and wine and beer. And cat food. Random, I know. But it was fun. And Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) was there speaking. He seems like a pretty decent guy despite his party affiliation. :) His son was with him too.

Last night, we went to another reception. One of Janelle’s friends is the Federal Relations Assistant for the State University of New York (SUNY) and they were having a reception in the Cannon Caucus room. It’s one of those things to showcase the university system and how awesome it is. They had an open bar, which is always a big draw for hill staffers, and excellent beef brisket from NY cows and some other hors d’oeuvres. It was a nice little event. Little tidbit: Renee Fleming did her undergrad at SUNY Potsdam. Don’t ask me how I know that, but I do.

Tonight, we’re going to the Women in Government Relations Spring Gala. It’s at Union Station with live music, a raffle for a super cool vaca in Jamaica, good food, dancing, and good times.

The showdown continues

I survived the night and I live to tell the tale. I swear it was the longest night I’ve had in a long time, but I was not attacked by the mouse that is on the loose in our house.

One of my roommies came home and she volunteered to sweep out my room of all the little presents left behind because I was too much of a child to deal with it myself. I was so pissed because I had to throw a bunch of food away. Since I was the last roommate to move in, I get the lowest shelf in the kitchen. I had a box of granola bars on the shelf and the mouse ripped into them and ate them. So those are in the trash. I also threw out a box of cereal that was right next to it because you never know and some bagels that were in a paper sack.

I couldn’t suck it up and sleep in my bed so thankfully Mel was out of town. I crashed in her bed Monday and Tuesday night. There was another mouse sighting on Tuesday. Sitting in the living room, watching American Idol, I see the mouse scurry from behind the couch and into the kitchen. Uh, the heebie jeebs!

So everyone’s telling me that peanut better is the way to go. We shall see. You know, I'll never be able to look at a mouse in the same way again. Rattatoullie? Forget it. An American Tale? No sir! Mickey Mouse? You jest. Jerry? Don't even get me started!!

Office Field Trip

The people I work with are super cool. Not counting the congressman, there are eight people working in the DC office. Minus one, we are all so much fun to hang out with. Since we are so cool, we thought it would be fun to get out of the district and head up to Atlantic City for a weekend of fun times. So we did.

We left Friday at three. Five of us went Friday plus one friend and our leg. director met us the next day. We got our rooms, unloaded some stuff, and grabbed dinner. Then we hit the penny and nickel slots. Hey, on a government salary, we can’t afford to go too big. We were in the Tropicana and wanted to check out the other casinos. We headed out onto the boardwalk and went to Caesar’s and Bally’s. Maybe one of Trump’s but if we did, it wasn’t terribly memorable. Then we went to Chelsea Pub and Hotel. It was thereon referred to as “My Pub.”

I got about five hours of sleep because I needed to be up for the massage I had scheduled at 10:00. It was my first ever, and it was Ah-mazing. I could’ve fallen asleep on the table, but I was too hungry to.

For lunch, we went to a great little pizza joint and hung out on the boardwalk for a while. The guys threw the football around, and one of the guys went in the water. Although the weather was pretty nice, the water was super cold.

Before going down to the casino floor, we headed over to My Pub again for some food. They don’t give discounts to people named Chelsea, but I tried. Back on the casino floor, I played the slots again and a little video poker. But I wasn’t getting enough action, so put on my big girl britches and headed over to the roulette table. I lost a bit before I won big. I reluctantly left the tables with $100 over and cashed in my chips.

The next morning, we peaced out at 11:00. The temp dropped and it was super rainy and overcast. We were glad to be getting out of there. We made it home around 5:30 after a terrible experience at Cracker Barrel, but an amazing weekend in Atlantic City! Office field trips are sooo fun!! Next up is Baltimore for our LD's wedding.

Root, root, root for the home team!!!

Now that our tickets were secured, Mel and I just had to get to the ballpark, find our seats, grab a beer, and sit back while all the awesomeness of baseball unfolded before us. The people at the Nats stadium must have know we were coming because they rolled out the red carpet for us. There were tons of people and it was so exciting to be a part of the buzzing crowd.




Once we strolled across the red carpet, we stood in line with the masses and made it through the security check point. The people in line behind us definitely pre-gamed it because they were already toast. Whatever you gots to do to enjoy the game. The gal taking our ticket was super nice and seemed like she was pretty happy to be a part of the buzz.



We located our section and then made a b-line towards the concession stands. Mel wanted one of the commemorative cups. I wanted a beer. So we coupled our ideas and got beers in commemorative cups. It was a lot of beer.

We made our way to our seats. They were pretty high up, but we had a great view of the Navy Yard and the Anacostia River. We found several of our friends from our four hour wait in line, and the dude that was collecting signatures of everyone who stood in line was still at it. He had several pages completely full and was asking the ticket lady who worked for the stadium for her John Hancock. That guy was awesome. I failed to mention that I danced with him when we got our pic taken. He was funny!

The opening game at the new stadium was not without fanfare. The DC National Guard came out and unraveled these two ginormous American Flags. I felt a rush of patriotism overcome me.

As the flags were being unfurled, Denyce Grave, a famous opera singer from the DC area came out to sing the National Anthem. I'm a huge fan of hers because I remember all the performances she gave during several of the 9/11 services. Because of that, her voice is very comforting to me. Anyways, we all sang the National Anthem and yelled out a resounding "Play Ball!!" The president marched to the mound sporting a National's jacket. He threw the first pitch a little high, and from our positioning I couldn't tell you if it was straight over the strike zone or not. He quickly walked off waving. Mel and I almost had to do a double take and asked if it really happened because it was super fast.

Now it was time for the big game! If you want major details on the play-by-play, check ESPN or Andrew - he keeps track of that stuff. I can't even remember what the final score was. I just remember that the Nationals scored first and it was a pretty close game and the Nationals were ahead by one run.

Mel had a lot of work she was neglecting and wanted to leave somewhat early so she could go to work early on Monday. I at least wanted to hang tight until the 7th inning stretch. Mel went and got hotdogs and nachos that are required to make a live baseball game official. While she was gone, she missed the running of the Presidents. Abe, Jefferson, Washington, and Teddy squared off in a leg race from center field to home plate. Teddy went a little off course, the Giecko Caveman entered midway through, it was either Jefferson or Abe but one of those two totally face-planted it in the dirt. As fitting, Washington took first!

We started heading out at the bottom of the 7th. As we approached the ground level, Denyce Graves came back out to lead us all in a hearty rendition of “God Bless America” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” She’s awesome. With her conclusion, Mel and I headed back home. A 12 hour day consumed with lines, baseball, crazy fans, politics, beer, opera, and hotdogs. Not a bad day at all.

But we did miss the final inning clincher. Apparently the Braves scored off a bad play by the Nats, and with two outs, bottom of the 9th, Ryan Zimmerman pops the ball out and scored a homerun giving the Nats their first win at the new stadium. Baseball in the nations Capitol – America at it’s most awesome!

Quick rodent update

The problem has not been absolved and the mouse is still in the house. Not sure where it is, but I will attempt to sleep in my bed tonight. If you don't hear from me in the next few days, then I've been eaten alive. If I survive the night, a full update will be granted tomorrow.

Standing in line because we're awesome!

So Melanie and I are soooo cool sometimes I can’t even stand it!! The Washington National’s just got a brand new stadium built for them and the season opener was promised to be super good times. I thought all tickets were going to be sold out, but my legislative director told me on Friday that they were selling 500 tickets at 3:00 for $5.00. What a bargain!!! I really wanted to go for several reasons: 1) It’s baseball in a new stadium 2) The President was throwing out the first pitch 3) Opera singer and DC native Denyce Graves was singing the National Anthem and 7th Inning Stretch 4) I had nothing else planned for Sunday.

Mel said she would come with. Since the rest of the seats were practically sold out, we thought that these $5 tickets would probably be in high demand, especially since it was the season opener in a brand new stadium. Pretty much, this was the place to be on this particular Sunday. Our game plan was to leave our house at 10:00, grab some coffee/hot cocoa at the Starbucks on the way, walk on over to the stadium, which is about a 25 minute walk towards the Anacostia River, and stand in line for 4 hours to ensure we had tickets to this super cool game.

We got a bit of a late start, but managed to leave the homestead at 10:30-ish. Side story really quick. I learn quite a bit at work. One day, I was informed that dinosaurs were found in DC (no not Robert Byrd), and F St. SE has since been dubbed Capitolsaurus Court. I told Melanie and she didn’t believe me. On the way to the stadium, I proved to her that it does exist.

We made it to the stadium to find that there really weren’t that many people there. We didn’t pop in line right away because we were unsure if it was really the line we needed, but we soon figured it out and secured our spots. We stood for awhile. Then a lady came out and said we would need to reform the line at the opposite end of the wall because secret service had security issues with the location. They handed us numbers so we wouldn’t lose our places and reformed the line. I was number 46 and Mel was 47.

We had a lot of time to kill. Our new buddies behind us busted out the playing cards. I brought out my mp3 player and got the tunes rolling. Mel’s not much of a country fan and I found opera a little inappropriate for the occasion so my options were slightly limited. Mel walked to Five Guys to get some fries. While she was gone, this guy came around with a pad of paper asking everyone to sign. He just wanted to document all the people who stood in line for the tickets as a little memento for the awesome occasion. I got a picture with him.

I was amazed at how fast the time actually passed. Mel went up to the front of the line to see what time those folks got here. The first guy and his son arrived at 6:30, the next guy came at 7:00, and they said everybody else started arriving around 10:00. The line really started to increase around 2:00 and soon it had wrapped back around to where it initially started and past the entrance to the garage. We packed up camp and bought two tickets – section 402, row C, seats 17 and 18. Not too shabby.

Mel and I trekked back home to unwind for a little bit and grab dinner before the 8:10 game. We bundled up and left the house at 6:30.


Up next: The Big Game!!!

Ch-ch-ch-cherry Blossoms everywhere

Spring in DC means Cherry Blossoms. Cherry Blossoms in DC means tons of festivities. Tons of festivities in DC means unfathomable amounts of tourists.

Two Saturdays ago, Mel and I battled the crowds and headed to the National Mall for the first weekend of Cherry Blossom Festivities: Kite Flying on the National Mall. We were just going to walk around for a few minutes because she had a massage appointment to get to and I had lunch plans with Julie. There were so many kites; it was awesome!!! I did a sudden flash to Mary Poppin's "Let's Go Fly a Kite." I was instantly a 7-year old child again.

We walked around for several minutes gazing at all the super cool kites in the air, on the ground, and in between. We walked past a group of ladies with some pretty hi-tech kites. None of them were in the air. As we walked past, they asked if we could take a picture of them. I of course said yes. As I handed the camera back, one of the ladies asked if I wanted to fly the kite. Ummmm, YEAH!!!! So I grabbed the reigns and put forth my most valiant effort t otry and get that kite in the air. I was succeeded for about 2 minutes. But it wasn't for a lack of trying.

I headed to Dupont to have lunch with Julie. I went to college with her and she's such a fun person to hang out with. It's a shame we go weeks between visits and we probably only live a few miles from each other. She'll be starting a new job with the Capitals (hockey team) in May. That should be good times for her.

Melanie and I headed back to the mall to check out the Cherry Blossoms. They're pretty awesome. I'm probably not as amazed by them as other people, but they are pretty cool to see juxtaposed against all the monuments. We walked all the way to the Jefferson memorial on the other side of the Tidal Basin to get a different view. Oh, and what a view!!!

There’s gonna be a showdown!

There’s a mouse in our house, and right now it’s in my room. I first had an encounter with this mouse several weeks ago. I was almost face-to-face with the little varmint when I was leaning down to grab a piece of fruit from the lower pantry. I didn’t have my contacts in so I only saw a little gray thing scurry across the floor and behind the couch. That’s the last I saw of it. However, lying in bed some nights, I swore I heard some weird noises. I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was exactly, so instead of freaking myself out, I convinced myself that it was the wind blowing the flags against my window.

Fast forward to today. I’m sitting on my bed watching a dvd and all of a sudden, this mouse comes scurrying through a small opening between my door and the wall and goes right behind my book case. I freak out. What else am I supposed to do? So I sit there for a while, a little pissed because I was really into the dvd, and a little overcome with the heebie jeebies. I can’t sleep in my room now. Not knowing there is a mouse in there. So after a good solid thirty minutes of freaking out and several phone calls to mom and friends, I muster up the cajones to grab my shoes, which are right next to the bookcase, and head over to CVS for something to take care of my little problem.

I grabbed some food on the way home because I was not going to eat there tonight. I took a couple of detours to prolong this showdown I was to have with the other creature dwelling in my room. After an hour and a half, I made it home. I’m standing in the doorway of the kitchen looking into my room and at this very moment, the mouse decides to poke its head out. I medium freak out and now I’m sitting on the couch in the living room. I’m sleeping in Mel’s bed tonight since she’s out of town for the week. We’ll see how things unfold over the next couple of days. In the meantime, I’m putting my faith in a piece of cheese and a mousetrap that’s reminiscent of Tom and Jerry. This could get interesting…

Rigoletto at the Kennedy Center (3/27)

Torrey knows a friend – I use the word ‘knows’ loosely because he can’t remember who the person is or how he knows them – who works at the Kennedy Center. The friend works specifically for the Washington National Opera as the Manager of External Relations. Once politics is out of my system, it is my dream to utilize my public relations degree and work for an opera company/house doing PR in some shape or form. So this person is already cool in my book. This friend invited him and a guest to an event that was being headlined by a former secretary of Veteran’s Affairs. After that, guests were invited to stick around and watch the dress rehearsal of Verdi’s Rigoletto starring Joseph Calleja. I’m still unsure what the event was for/about and why it was at the Kennedy Center. But I love opera and veterans so I’m not complaining.

We arrive late because Torrey couldn’t get off work, but that gave me some time to switch out of jeans and into more respectable attire so I didn’t complain. We get to the KC and make it up to the event. Torrey’s first question to me is “where is the bar?” He's got his priorities in order. :) We step into the room where the event was taking place and some dude was speaking about the KC and how cool opera is and how these are exciting times. Then, he mentions Placido Domingo. Even if you don’t love opera, you should know who Placido Domingo is. Geeze! He’s one of the three tenors! Come on people! :) So I hear Domingo’s name (he’s the general director of the WNO) and my eyes start darting across the room in search of the famous tenor. Could this be? Him? Here? Is he going to speak? No way! Well, just no. I got my hopes up. But the ex-secretary of the VA got up and spoke.

About fifteen minutes into the speech, Torrey leans in and says, “Gee, I love listening to myself speak as much as anyone else, but this is ridiculous.” We stepped outside so he could smoke a cig and then headed back in to grab a quick cocktail and dinner roll, picked up our tickets, and headed to the opera hall.

This was only my second live opera, the first being Otello at the Met with my fave Renee Fleming, so I was looking forward to the evening. I had heard good things about Rigoletto, but didn’t have time to familiarize myself with the plot or music. But it’s Verdi and I love Verdi who also composed Otello and another favorite La Traviata. The KC opera house was a lot smaller than the Met, but I think it added intimacy and closeness to the performance.

Here’s the gist of the opera as posted on the WNO’s website: “As the libertine Duke of Mantua’s jaded jester, Rigoletto is known for sparing no one his biting and often vicious sarcasm. But when courtiers abduct Rigoletto’s beloved daughter, Gilda, for the Duke’s enjoyment, a curse and misdirected revenge bring tragedy and are Rigoletto’s undoing.” So the courtiers thought that Gilda was Rig’s ‘lady friend’ and not daughter. Rigoletto hired some dude to off the Duke out of revenge. Gilda doesn’t want the Duke to die, so dressed as a man, she takes the place of the Duke and is stabbed and eventually dies in the arms of her dad. Rediculous? Yes. Melodramatic? Of course! Amazingly awesome? You bet!!

The opera was Ah-MAZING! Joseph Calleja is pretty darn hot and sang extremely well as the Duke. Andrea Silverstrelli was the dude hired to kill the Duke. I was totally captivated by this Italian bass. It was a very interesting and unique voice with so much power behind it. I was also pleasantly surprised because I had heard two of the songs and never knew they came from this opera – “Caro Nome” and “La Donna e mobile” (many of you have probably heard La donna e mobile before – google it). The sets were huge, but conveyed well the various locals.

The performance was a dress rehearsal and it was fully staged and the singers were fully costumed. The only major thing that might be different in a dress rehearsal as opposed to the real deal is that some of the singers might choose to cover. This just means that they don’t sing full voiced to save up for the opening night. In some instances, the orchestration might overpower the singer making them a little more difficult to hear. I think I only picked up on this a few times, mostly from the soprano who sang Gilda, and I think Rigoletto and the Duke. But I’m no expert so who really knows?

Well, my second opera experience was most enjoyable. The small crowd, including myself thoroughly enjoyed it. I think Torrey had a good time too. He left the house whistling the tune for La Donna and was mesmerized by the enormity and awesomeness of the stage settings. Maybe I have a convert who can join me at future productions. Handel’s Tamerlano is up next with Placido Domingo.

Tours: the people's house and my work

Michelle and her family were in town for the White House Easter Egg Roll and asked if I could give them a tour of the Capitol on Tuesday (3/25). Of course!!! Anything to break the day up and roam around the coolest Capitol ever! She also scheduled a White House tour for her and her folks and asked if I wanted to come along. Of course!!! It is, after all, the people’s house.

Our tour was scheduled for 10:00 and because of security I just went from my house to the White House bypassing work altogether. Thank goodness we were on recess. I’ve been to the White House several times. Twice for a West Wing tour given by a friend who works in the press office. He was very knowledgeable and had some great stories and info to tell about the WH. So those tours were awesome. Plus we got to see the Oval Office. Don’t tell the secret service, but I accidentally slipped my foot a little past the threshold into the Oval Office – twice. Another time, I went to work with Mel when she was the holiday assistant (pretty much the coolest job ever because you’re working at the WH at Christmas time!!!) I pretty much saved the day for the Hanukah Party (a story for a different time) and after Mel and I worked, we went to the East Wing to see all the Christmas decorations. It was pretty Ah-MAZING!

So this tour that we had scheduled was for the East Wing – minus the Christmas decorations. It was still pretty awesome, but what I missed was a tour guide telling me some cool stories and inside info about what happened in these rooms and a little history about, oh I don’t know, say the color selections. Why red, blue and green? How come not purple, pink and orange? So minus the no tour guide thing, the East Wing is pretty spectacular. If you stand there and think of all the presidents from our country and others who have passed through these halls, you can’t help but be astounded. I was astounded. Seriously think about it. Abe Lincoln lived there. I probably walked were Abe Lincoln once walked. I was standing where Teddy Roosevelt probably once stood thinking about which piece of lands to designate as National Park Land.

About an hour and a half after breathing in about two hundred years worth of American Presidential history, we all headed over to Union Station for a bite to eat. Then it was off to my work. By now it’s 1:30 and Troy and Karen have to leave by 3:00 to get off to their flight back to Arizona. We went downstairs through the elaborate tunnel system connecting Congress to the House and Senate office buildings and the Library of Congress. Tons of other people were in town, so there was quite a line to get into the Capitol.

We finally made it through and headed to the Crypt to see where Washington was first interred before being moved to Mt. Vernon. Next, we quickly dashed to the House Floor so Karen and Troy could see that before they had to leave. After we said goodbye to the two, we resumed with the rest of the tour. I’ve only given a tour to Sam and Steve before so my knowledge about the various paintings and frescos is quite unpolished. Luckily, Michelle’s family was pretty content with just taking in the enormity and awesomeness of it all.
By the time we finished up with the tour there was only about an hour left until quitting time. I checked emails and shuffled through some papers before calling it a day. And then I met Michelle and her folks for dinner at Bullfeathers around 7:30. Hanging with pals at the White House and Capitol – not a bad day at all!

Sin City?

Nope, Atlantic City baby!!!

Everyone in the office is headed to the shores of AC for a weekend of fun, gambling, but unfortunately no beach time (a bit too cold for that) but I heard a whiffle ball tournament is in the mix. I, myself, have scheduled a Svedish massage! Ahh, the luxury. So I'm out for the weekend and won't be posting to the blog. Still have a week to get caught up on so tune in next Monday when everything should be up to speed. Oh, and send me good luck vibes. Big winner baby!!!

Great times on the ski lift

This is the greatest vid I have ever seen. As a skier/snowboarder, I can totally relate to this guy and all the random thoughts that pop in your head as you sit on the lift. Especially if it's a weekday and not many people are on the mountain so you get the lift all to yourself and you're just sitting there amongst nature's awesomeness thinking "what happens if I fall? How bad would that hurt? Would I break my legs or could I land it just right so I could board down without any problems? Man, it's really cold."



This video makes me miss Flagstaff so much. I moved to DC right when they were getting hit with these awesome snow storms so I've missed a whole season of great boarding and random thoughts. Sigh... Anywho, the video was made by a Telluride regular. This is his website: http://www.favermanfilms.com/

What are the odds?!!

So just a few hours ago, I posted a blog cursing my uncanny ability to sleep through important and fun events and how I missed yet another opportunity to meet the First Lady. Well guess who just emailed me? That's right. Laura Bush herself!* Asking ME for an important personal favor. She called me by name and chirped how grateful her and her husband are for "our special friendship throughout his campaigns and Presidency."

My pleasure, Laura! Let's do lunch...


Okay, yeah it was just a blast email from the RNC, but whatevs.

Story of my life

Apparently I was not meant to be best friends with Laura Bush. My chances of meeting her are slowly fading away, and my one sure fire chance vanished right before my sleeping eyes.

Michelle was in town to work on the White House Easter Egg role. She got me waived through. I wanted to be there by 9:00. As luck would have it, my alarm didn't go off and I didn't wake up until….you guessed it….9:00. I check my blackberry and have several emails from Michelle and Mel, "Where are you?" "When are you getting here?" "The President and First Lady are here." Of flipping course! There was no chance of making it over in time to even get a glimpse of the First Couple, so I got in the shower and tried to get over before I missed anything else. I made it by 10:00. Not only did I miss the first couple, but my camera is a piece of crap and drains the batteries the instant you put them in. Luckily, I was able to borrow a camera, otherwise this whole Easter experience would just be a memory with no visuals.

Michelle hooked me up with an early lunch from the staffers tent, which was very welcomed since I skipped breakfast in my haste. I met up with Troy and Karen on their way down to the Ellipse. Michelle's dad is a magician in his spare time and he's so awesome that he got to perform at this year's Egg Roll. We watched his show and he's quite good! We strolled back up to the South Lawn since Norm had another show to do. It was pretty much a repeat of the first show, but he's still good! Torrey got there around this time so I strolled around the White House lawn with him for a few minutes before he headed off to work. I stuck around for a bit longer since I didn’t have anywhere to go so I walked around the White House lawn for a few more minutes because I was there and I could. Plus, when else I’m I going to be able to freely meander across the WH lawn? Probably not for a while.

So who else did I miss? My favorite Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, football star Troy Aikman, tons of cool Sesame Street Muppets, the Jonas Brothers (a travesty for missing them, I know), and a slew of other WH officials plus I think the first dogs were out there. That’s alright. It was cool to go anyways!

I met up with Michelle’s parents, Troy and Karen at 4:00 to go to the top of the Washington Monument. Never done that before so it was way awesome! The view from the top is Ah-MAZING!!! Afterwards, we met up with Michelle, and we all went to Old Ebbitts for dinner. It was very good. They have the best peanut butter pie ever! We hung out in the bar for a few minutes afterwards and then parted ways.

Good times were had by all this Easter Monday. There’s still 9 more months to try and become best friends with Laura Bush. We shall see….

A double dose of Jesus

There aren't many people who I'll get out of bed for before six o'clock. Jesus is one of the few.

We decided that sunrise services on the Lincoln Memorial would be pretty awesome, so despite the ghastly hour, the roommates plus two stumbled out of the apartment at 5:30 to claim our seats at the feet of Lincoln. We were pretty early, but it was amazing how many people came for the event. The choir was amazing, the service was great, and the view was spectacular. Totally worth getting out of bed at 5:00 for. I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

The roomies plus two: Trey, Mel, Laura, Me, Tara, Sarah

Pretty much Ah-MAZING

We came home, made pancakes and chilled the rest of the day. Mel, Trey and I went to the National Cathedral around 5:00 for their Easter Services. The choir was seriously heaven on earth – literally brought tears to my eyes. The service was a bit liturgical for my tastes, but I certainly appreciated the tradition and awesomeness of what was being presented.

Quite a long day, but a double dose of Jesus is well worth it! Mel and I had planned on dying eggs, but we only got as far as boiling them. Maybe next year or some random day when we have egg-stra eggs. (haha I made a pun!)

Visitors Galore

When people come to visit, they come to stay…with us. One roommate had a friend in town for a conference for a whole week leading up to Easter. Mel's buddy Trey, whom I bonded with over a DC United game last summer, came into town on Thursday and was staying through Monday. The house was full! Plus, Michelle and her fam, and Troy and his g-ma were coming in from AZ for a weekend of Easter festivities (they weren't staying with us!) With lots of people comes lots of good times! (Please note that there is a Trey and a Troy in this story so try to keep up.)

After Mel and Trey got back from dinner on Thursday, someone had the bright idea of walking the monuments at night, in the cold and the wind. So we (Mel, Trey, Tara, and I) bundled up and took the metro to the Smithsonian stop and walked the rest of the way. It was actually pretty awesome and I'd never seen the monuments at night. We walked all the way to the Lincoln singing patriotic songs because we're cool and we can. We talked about maybe one day streaking through a national monument area, but most of the time we're all talk and no action.

Torrey had organized a dinner Friday evening for Michelle, Troy, Karen (the g-ma), and me at this steak place which was featured in the Devil Wear's Prada. It took several brainstorms to settle on this place as our dinner local. Torrey wanted to take us all to a Mexican restaurant. Now I'm sure there are Mexicans living in DC making good Mexican food, but you don't come from Arizona to DC for the Mexican food. That's just dumb! It's as if I was going to North Dakota for the lobster. You just don't do that. So we finally all agreed on this place. I had the prime rib, and it was excellent! We wined and dined and eventually strolled back to the Mayflower hotel where Michelle and Troy were staying. For anyone keeping track, that's the hotel where NY Gov. Spitzer had his rendevouzs that got him in a lot of trouble. Torrey broke off and headed to Dupont. The rest of us just hung out in the hotel bar for awhile shooting the breeze. I eventually left and closed the books on another fine Friday in our great nation.

But I opened the books on a new and superb Saturday. Mel and Trey wanted to go to Annapolis and invited all the roomies to come along. All the roommates wanted to go, but indecisiveness and homework widdled them away leaving the three of us bound for a mini road trip to Maryland.

Our first stop was the state capitol building. It was pretty old and pretty awesome. There's a George Washington life size figurine that apparently spoke at one time, but GW was mute on our visit. But that didn't stop me from getting my pic with our first president. From the state capitol, we ventured on over to the Naval Academy, but we stopped into a little art shop en route. They had the coolest set painting ever. One was a picture of Republican presidents (Abe, Teddy, GWB, GWHB, the Gipper, etc) sitting around playing poker. The other was the same of Democrat presidents (Bill, JFK, FDR, Jackson, Carter, maybe LBJ). Melanie and I were both serious about purchasing them, but they were kind of pricy. We told the shop owner that we were in town for the day and might stop back in on our way through town. If I didn't have so many opera's looming in the future, I might've purchased the painting...maybe even the set. I guess that's the true bipartisan in me. :)

So the Naval Academy was cool. We went into the campus cathedral and it was pretty awesome. The view of the harbor was phenomenal, especially with all the sail boats out and about on the overcast day. We strolled up one of the streets and stopped off to get some icecream and then headed up to this famous historical house that is known for it's huge garden. It was big. And there was a stream that flowed through it. It would be cool to have an evening party there. We headed back down towards the harbor and popped into a restaurant for a late lunch. After lunch we headed back to the car and drove home to the district. We watched Music and Lyrics, probably one of the greatest movies ever! and then headed to bed. Not bad for a spur of the moment road trip!

A night on the town

This event took place March 14th.

Torrey knows a guy who works for a cancer foundation. His company was having a dinner gala thing and invited us to come along. Torrey and I went back and forth on if we'd go. We decided not to, but Tor's friend called and said he'd be disappointed if we didn't go. So we went. I asked Tor what I should wear. He said black tie in DC means whatever you wore to work. Okay Torrey…

Torrey decided to rent a tux and at this point, I'm freaking out because I have two days to find an acceptable dress. Mel to the rescue! I emailed her and asked if she had a dress I could borrow. I tore through her closet and pulled out all her fancy dresses. Luck was on my side because the first dress fit perfectly. It was a black halter with beading under the bust line. So what I thought was going to take hours only took 30 minutes. So I met Torrey at the Sewall-Belmont house for a pre-St. Patrick's day event. Free food and Guinness! Heck yeah!

I met Torrey and his friend's boyfriend at the National Building Museum – a gorgeous and ginormous building. We went in and thank goodness I didn't listen to Torrey about his black tie theory because the ladies brought out their finest. We mingled for several minutes, sipped champagne, munched on exotic hors d'oeuvres, and gossiped about people.

It was time to be seated for dinner. Turkey was the host country for the event, so the décor was Ah-MAZING! Deep reds and gold with lavish table settings and tents. It was beautiful! We had a pretty decent table with the head of wine and spirits. The only problem, our table didn't exist. So they set us at the "kiddy table" in the very back corner. I think we had more fun that way and there was a girl there that I had met through the national College Republicans 3 years ago. Small world. Dinner was interesting. I ate crab and lamb – two things I normally don't eat.

After dinner, Paul, the friend's bf asked if I wanted to dance. I prefaced the acceptance with a disclaimer about my dancing skills. They're non-existent. I eventually got Torrey on the dance floor and we twirled around for a few songs. It was soooo much fun. I think the glasses of champagne with dinner helped to loosen me up a bit.

Afterwards, the boys wanted to go to Dupont, so I hung around for a drink. I got the ultimate compliment when I gay guy said I looked "fabulous," even though the guy carding us at the door said we looked like we just came from the prom. Whatevs. I popped myself in a cab and headed home.

I'm glad we decided to go because it turned out to be a great evening. Good food (kinda weird though) good friends, and good times.

Torrey, me, and Paul in our "Prom" attire.

Sightings

Arizona's own, Congressman John Shadegg crossed Pennsylvania outside the Cannon HOB just as I was crossing the street. I woulda said hi, but he looked pretty focused on his blackberry.