Now that we are on the passport taskforce, we are working in a federal building downtown near the Capitol. Each morning, we take the shuttle from our apartment down the street to our Metro stop, take the Metro in, usually listening to our iPods or reading along the way, and stop at Starbucks for coffee (yes, I am back on caffeine after three years) before we head to our makeshift office. The good news is that our dress code is pretty casual (they’re just so happy we are there working, they don’t care what we’re wearing!) and our hours are pretty flexible, as long as we get in our 8 hours each day. The supervisors are doing what they can to keep up spirits, and generally there’s good esprit de corps.
John took me to lunch one day at the nearby National Museum of the American Indian food court – delicious and creative! It’s not like any other food court I’ve been to – I had a buffalo ribeye (cooked over an open fire pit) with a side of black bean salad and green beans. All of the dishes are based on Native American recipes. I need to go back to walk through the Museum because it is gorgeous.
It certainly hasn’t slowed us down after hours. Last Tuesday, I went to the Legg Mason Tennis Classic with a classmate. Wow! I got to see Roddick, Safin, Henman and Monfils play, plus some great games on the perimeter courts.
Saturday night we were invited to a small get-together at a classmate’s apartment. There is a subset culinary club in our class; while John and I aren’t members, we were invited to a tapas dinner. It was delicious food and great company. Last night, we went to another classmate’s apartment for dinner. Whitney’s wife is Swiss-Mexican, and she made us a fondue dinner – yummy.
Other outings during the week included a magic club meeting for John and a nice dinner out for the two of us at Harry’s.
A crystal from Hot Springs, on display at the Natural History Museum