Winding Down the Year

Eating some quick dinner before heading down to Portland for New Years. The break has been great so far, with Christmas in Connecticut, a day in NYC, then up in Maine since Sunday night and staying through Monday.





It snowed some today, and hopefully it will stick long enough to get some xc skiing in. Downhill skiing Saturday is likely as well. Breaks, however, are mostly good for relaxing, playing with kitties, and seeing friends. Check, check, and check.

Let's show 2009 out in style.



Catch you all on the flip side.

Around Town 2

This doesn't happen around these parts much.

YBP: Ezra and Rachel

Recent concert with Ezra Furman and Rachel Goodrich:
http://blog.yellowbirdproject.com/2009/12/16/ezra-and-rachel/

Around Town

First Snow

And not a bad one, considering it's DC. It was definitely a good excuse for a lazy brunch and using the gas fireplace for a few minutes. Even muscling a desk over from Mount Pleasant felt more like a good opportunity to be outside in the cold.

Thanksgiving Deliciousness

Thanksgiving was wonderful, and the large bread bowl with minestrone soup above wasn't even part of it. It was my first one away from home since I opted to stay in DC. Amanda came down Tuesday night and was here through Sunday, while Jay and Lauren were around for most of Thursday and Friday, so it was a good crowd. We had a great meal with Amanda's family after a day of cooking orchestrated and coordinated by Amanda herself. She even let other people help here and there.

Friday wasn't great weather, but I went to the National Zoo for the first time since I got here with Jay and Lauren. I hadn't been to a zoo since the Beijing Zoo two summers ago, and understandably the National Zoo was a little higher caliber in terms of facilities and care (except for the giant pandas, which was comparable. China likes their pandas).

The rest of the break involved hanging out, spending quality time with quality people, running, guitaring, and eating. I can't ask for much more than that.

We also saw Devendra Banhart on Wednesday night, which I wrote about over at YBP. Pitchfork I know didn't have a great review of his newest album so I was a little wary going into it, but after hearing it live I'd like to get my hands on it.

And, suddenly, it's December. I've been keeping myself pretty busy with events after work, running more often, trying to push myself on guitar more, and devouring online content (I really don't give enough credit to how much I read online. I feel bad about not reading more books and then realize that my entire day is spent reading things, and more often than not very interesting things. They're just not as tangible or recognized as books). At some point this week I would like to get up to Maryland to try out some amps. It's about time to redeem that present from Christmas 2008.



In related news, The Astroturf have a myspace page. Weep for the children. It's all relatively old stuff since Stots has been in Montreal/South America for a while, and I've been in DC, and our most recent stuff has all been economic in theme. Since we might actually be doing something with that in the future, I don't know if we'll put it online. At least now I can say with personal experience that editing myspace pages is as infuriating as looking at them.

There have been some changes in the job situation. Starting in a month, at the very least, I'll be a research assistant at CSIS, so that's cool beans. It's all about the baby steps. Like everyone else in this city, I am keeping my eyes open for potential opportunities, but it feels good to be making some progress.

Now off to a swanky U.S. Chamber of Commerce Corporate Citizenship Awards dinner. Because why not?