January. Yes, January. Who let this happen? I’ve got a bone to pick with you, Mayans. I am not emotionally prepared for it to be 2013.
Oh well. The universe’s continued failure to consult me persists. Here’s what we’ve got planned.
Fedward: with my worst month of the work year behind me, it’s now time for the Social Chair’s worst month. This means I get to pick up the slack in a number of ways, from learning how to schedule our time to picking the best moment just to grab take-out. This weekend’s survival tips include a trip to Ace Beverage to resupply after the holidays, a stop at Smucker Farms to pick up our winter CSA box and some other goodies, and restorative noodles from Pho Viet. Sunday we’re planning to go to the Schoolhouse Rock! 40th anniversary event (featuring local family-friendly band Rocknoceros) at the Millennium Stage. We’ll either round up the Niecelets and confuse them with pop culture references too old for them to understand or go hang out with the other childless adults trying not to look creepy in the back of the Great Hall.
Tom: Winter is my least favorite season, but at least now we’re less than 40 days until pitchers & catchers report for Spring Training, That means baseball is on my mind more than ever, so I’ll be paging through the Nats’ prospects and trade and signing opportunities to give myself something to look forward to. We’ll also be pulling down the Christmas Tree, which you can put out in your tree box, or on the right of way strip, until the 12th of December and the city will recycle them into delicious garden mulch. Were we not heading to visit our friends in Boston this weekend, I hear there’s a Michaelangelo at the National Gallery of Art that needs seeing.
Katie: My Cherry Blossom 10 Mile training officially started this week (woo, new years goals) and so I’m off the drinking until April 7. Which means no bars for me at night, so friends and I are planning on going to the movies (either E Street or Shirlington) and I’ll be doing lots of healthy cooking. I’ll probably stock up on ingredients at Union Market or Dupont Farmer’s Market. On Saturday, a cute boy wants to hold my hand while ice skating at Canal Park, and you can’t say no to that.
Jenn: Let’s be honest, is anyone really doing anything this weekend? Really? Aren’t you all meditating and hitting the gym and going sober for thirty days and other such resolutions? Hmm. I’ve been fighting the cold that it seems everyone in the city has caught, but if I rally, it’s off to a tour of the Seneca Quarry with my favorite local literary journalist, Garrett Peck. Best known for his Temperance Tours and books on Prohibition in DC, Peck’s next book is The Smithsonian Castle & The Seneca Quarry, to be published in February. This walking tour takes you along the C&O Canal’s Seneca Aqueduct, showcasing the stonecutting mill, the quarry, and more. It starts at 11am on Saturday, and it’s free. Nature, history, and the beauty of our local bright rock known as Seneca red sandstone: I think a long restorative hike is just what I need this weekend.
Joanna: Since we’ve been out of town for a while, I’ll be playing catch-up a bit this weekend. That mostly means cleaning out emails and planning for the new year, but it also means seeing Les Misérables in my own AMC Courthouse leather recliner with footrest (for us shorties!), ice skating, and gawking at the David-Apollo at the NGA. I’m also finally seeing the sold-out Pullman Porter Blues at Arena Stage. At the time of this writing, there are still some standing room only tickets available Friday night…
Don: Jenn has my number. Not on the gym thing. I tried lifting weights once; those things are HEAVY. Besides, I spend my days doing repeated 8 pound curls since my infant son demands to be held at all times. Between that and the knee-bopping I presume I’ll be taut as a drum in no time, based on all those ads I used to see for isometric exercise plans. So I can’t quit the beer – I need the carbo-loading to fuel this muscle extravaganza. No, I mean on the doing-little thing. Sure, there’ll be some outings. I need my farm eggs – those pale yellow yolks from the store don’t do it, so off to the farmer’s market like the bougie parentals we are. Since we are Those People and our boy sleeps pretty much all the time at this phase we might have a Passenger outing. Our only other impending plan is homebound; we’ve made it a tradition to have an Epiphany dinner with some close friends every year and this one is no exception. I’ll fill the boy’s cradle with hay for the occasion. Hope he likes it!
Rachel: At some point, that is still to be determined, there will be bowling this weekend! Yes, bowling! And I sure am excited for this. While Lucky Strike in Chinatown is always a decently fun time (there’s barely anyone there during the day Saturday so it’s as if you have your own private alley), I may end up at Strike Bethesda. Then, my good friend Zia Hassan is opening for one of his all-time favorite songwriters Michael Clem (of Eddie From Ohio) at Jammin’ Java Saturday night. So I’ll likely be showing him some support and rocking out to some solid songwriting in NoVa.
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
