The Word For The Weekend Was Chillax

I never heard the word chillax before coming to DC, but it is apparently common slang here, a combination of chill and relax. It might not only be the word for the weekend, but the word for the summer, and that would be just fine with me.

Saturday morning, after being up till after 2 am, I woke up without even setting an alarm at 6 am. You might be wondering why I would be wide awake that early in the morning after only getting 3-4 hours of sleep the night before. All week I had been anticipating going to see the blue jay's nest at the site near Foggy Bottom because when I had been by there earlier in the week it looked like they would fledge on Saturday and I wanted to see them one last time before they left the nest. I fell hard and fast for that little family and I woke up so excited to go and see them.

Also, I wanted to see if I could get some pictures since my friends C and L like blue jays so much, and I'd noticed the light was best in the morning for shooting photos of the nest.

When I came back from visiting the blue jays, my advisor was heading out to go strawberry picking at Butler Farms, and unwilling to pass up the opportunity I bailed on my run to join him, Eagle Eyes and Mississippi Kite. It was like speed strawberry picking, we were all so greedy at the sight of the juicy, ripe strawberries that we grabbed everything in sight, filling our tupperware containers in just a few minutes. Just after we started picking, there was a downpour, which actually suited our exuberant mood. As we picked, we gorged ourselves on strawberries (I wonder if that is what birds feel like when they gorge on berries in season-- like their stomach is distended and full of sweet water). Then Tarzan threw a rotten strawberry at Eagle Eyes, who in turn lobbed one at unsuspecting me and we had a mini-food fight in the middle of the strawberry fields in the rain-- pretty much picture perfect in my book, and very much my idea of a good time.

When I got back to DC I turned right around and headed off to Richmond, VA for an Indigo Girls concert at the National. We (meaning my date and I, and yes it was a date and a very enjoyable one at that) arrived in time to do dinner at Kuba Kuba first. I ordered vegetarian paella, which turned out to be a gigantic serving of yellow rice, tomatoes, artichokes, capers, garlic cloves and avocado with Cuban bread and tostones (flattened fried plantains). I think I'm going to be eating the leftovers for several days to come.

The venue was really beautiful and intimate. It reminded me a bit of going to see Brandi Carlile last fall at the Fillmore in San Francisco. The show was very much like a sing-along, although no one knew the words to their newest songs so they got to perform those few songs without everyone joining in. They played a nice set including Jonas & Ezekiel, Three Hits, Prince of Darkness, Kid Fears, Closer to Fine (of course) and Shame on You. I wish they had played Nashville, Joking, Least Complicated, Mystery, Land of Canaan or Love's Recovery. The last has my favorite Indigo Girls lyrics of all:

There I am in younger days, star gazing
Painting picture perfect maps
Of how my life and love would be
Not counting the unmarked paths of misdirection
My compass, faith in loves perfection
I missed ten million miles of road I should have seen

Need I say more? The lyrics from Prince of Darkness also really speak to me:

I don't know when I noticed life was life at my expense
The words of my heart lined up like prisoners on a fence
The dreams came in like needy children tugging at my sleeve
I said I have no way of feeding you, so leave

But I tried to make this place my place
I asked for providence to smile upon me with his sweet face
But I'll tell you
My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark
And I do not feel the romance I do not catch the spark
My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark
(by grace, my sight grows stronger)
And I do not feel the romance I do not catch the spark
(grows stronger)
By grace
(my place is of the sun)
My sight
(and this place is of the dark)
Is growing stronger
(I do not feel the romance)
I will not be a pawn
(I will not be)
For the prince of darkness any longer

The Indigo Girls are really what got me into folk music, and I think it was my friend J who introduced me to them at summer camp the year before I started high school. They were my heroes in high school, I decorated my day calendars with their photos and had a poster of them in my room. I remember vividly when Swamp Ophelia came out my senior year. I had been looking forward to its release for so long that when it finally came out I wanted to make the exciting newness of the album last for as long as possible so I only listened to one song off of it a night until I had heard them all once. I really savored that CD, but it turns out that it was the second to last one that I bought (I did buy 1200 curfews, a live version of songs). I'm not as impressed with their newer releases, I like their earlier songwriting better and their earlier songs also seem more acoustic than big band-like. Still, getting to see them in concert is awesome because they play a lot of their older songs and I have never forgotten my admiration for them, they represented a bright spot for me in high school, a reflection of some of my inner turmoil and that connection made me feel less alone and gave me hope and inspiration.

Sunday morning it was off to the farmer's market where I got a bunch of cheap, second tomatoes, apples (the farmer said it was the last week for apples, what will I do without them next week?) and some homemade oats and honey whole wheat bread. I also stopped by the thrift store in town to get a top as I have no clean laundry and I knew I would be going out again that night. (This alone speaks volumes about how much more social I have been lately than ever before-- I mean I'm having to expand my wardrobe to keep up with my social life!) I bought a cream colored sleeveless top with pink polka dots and frills. Those of you who know me well are probably shocked. The last few months I have just been getting girlier and girlier. I think that I finally feel comfortable wearing whatever I want and that I don't feel compelled to dress a certain style to fit in.

After my shopping excursion, I got in a long run, though in the increasing heat and humidity I'm going to have to re-think running at midday. I'm finding that no matter how much I drink, when I run for over an hour I get dehydrated.

In the evening I went out to Addis Ababa, an Ethiopian restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland with someone who I met a few weeks ago (I'll call her South Carolina since that is the area code on her phone). SC and I sat upstairs, which had beautiful outside seating. The atmosphere was amazing, but the food was not that spicy or as flavorful as I expected and the service was very slow. It's a nice place to go on a beautiful night like tonight, but I'm not sure I will go back there anytime soon. The food at the Ethiopian restaurant in my old neighborhood, Nile, was much better, but the service was even worse since the waitress did not speak English.

At any rate, I'm leaving the house at 3:30 am. It's going to be a long week, and I'm glad I packed as much as possible into my weekend because I am not going to be doing much besides working and sleeping for the next five days.