week in the life | thursday

8:00-10:00 The details of Thursday morning are kind of hazy. My plan was to go to the pool for a morning swim, but I wake up with a terrible headache. Maybe it's due to only getting four hours of sleep, maybe it's due to all the stress of the past few days, maybe it's due to the fact that I was drinking wine after 1 am last night...

It's raining and between the sound of the raindrops on our bedroom skylight, the busy-ness of the week, and the headache, I wish I could spend the whole day in bed. I down a breakfast of ibuprofen, and lie in bed trying to motivate myself to get up and deal with the day. I think I finally drag my ass out of bed at 10 something.

11:00 I finally feel like eating something. I make a strawberry/peach/orange smoothie and toast a puny old dried up English muffin. Do English muffins shrink with age or does Thomas's put all the runt muffins in the number six spot in the package?

11:30 I veg infront of the computer. Read blogs and twitter. Listen to voicemails. Maybe I send some e-mails? I head down to the studio for a little while to package up shop orders.

1:30 Packages arrive - the Pennsylvania and New Jersey map prints from Archival Arts and the Octopus prints from iprintfromhome. I am so relieved that I don't have to drive up to Baltimore a third time this week to pick up the prints. These arrivals mean I should have plenty of inventory available at Saturday's Crafty Balboa April Showers on Saturday. I don't have time to open the packages because I've got to get out the door, but tomorrow will be busy signing and packaging up all the prints.

1:45 Let the dogs out before I leave the house. Rainy days mean wiping off eight muddy paws each time the pups go outside.

2:00 I head to East Falls Church metro station forgetting that it is the middle of the day and there will be no parking spots available. ARGH! There are cars lined up outside the parking lot waiting for a cars to leave so they can get in. I don't have time for this and drive to West Falls Church station which has much more parking.

2:45 I'm finally on an Orange Line train and headed into the city.

3:10 I arrive at McPherson Square.

3:15 I meet up with Steffanie and we walk to the Washington Post Building to check out the DC Bloggers Bake Sale. There's a guy dressed as a big chocolate chip cookie (including a chocolate chip hat!) and lots of delicious baked goods for sale to benefit Share Our Strength. We both pick out a few treats and chat for a bit before Steffanie has to head back to work. (That's Steffanie in the blue jacket on the right.)

3:45 I have time to kill, so I wander around and take some pictures. I'm glad to see that the controversial Third Church of Christ Scientist building is still standing, even though the historic landmark was approved for demolition in 2009.

4:00 I find a seat in Farragut Square that is free of used condoms and cigarette butts and take out my bake sale treats for a snack. Or is it lunch? Another meal of cookies...

As I'm sitting there, a crazy ass squirrel sneak attacks me and tries to steal my Cocoa Bean Pecan Cookies (made by Chef Molly of Vanilla Bean Cuisine). The bastard! He's literally six inches away from me and as I reach for my camera he JUMPS ONTO MY CAMERA and grabs ahold of the lens with his paws and holds it like a steering wheel! Holy shit! I manage to click the shutter, and since I don't want to end this day with a squirrel bite, I grab my cookies and get outta there! I'm kind of hoping that the resulting photo will look like that famous photo of the Crasher Squirrel (hey, he even has his own Wikipedia entry!), but Crazy DC Squirrel is much too close to the camera for the lens to focus. However, the photo does corroborate my story:

4:05 I CAN HAZ PECAN COOKIE?




4:15 I continue to walk around the city and end up walking down to Foggy Bottom where Larry works. I sit down on a low wall outside to wait for him and to enjoy my cookies sans squirrel. The concierge from an apartment building tells me not to sit there. At least I think that's what he says, as I don't think he is speaking English. Is this loitering? Does he think I have a bottle of Colt 45 in my paper bag full of cookies?

6:00 Larry's done with work and we walk to the Foggy Bottom metro and ride to Arlington to meet up with friends.

6:20 Happy Hour at Spider Kelly's in Clarendon. We are attending a happy hour with a big group of former co-workers from the company where Larry and I met ten years ago. We have a wonderful time catching up with lots of old friends and laughing until our cheeks hurt. Despite the fact that I left this company seven years ago, there are over two dozen people at the happy hour who I know.

8:00 At some point in the evening, Larry gets ahold of my camera and manages to take some photos that seem to duplicate his vision under the influence of multiple beers.

8:15 Perhaps we should eat something. Continuing with our theme of Let's Eat Crap for the Entire Week, we dine on fried chicken and pulled pork sliders. I realize that I may not cook dinner once during Week in the Life. For someone who loves to cook, this is terribly embarrassing. But it's also real life.
10 something We're sad to leave, but have to get home to the pups. We resolve to try to hang out with these old friends more often.
11:00 We're home, the pups have been out and put themselves to bed and Larry's ready to crash. I go into the office and start downloading these photos...