I had the opportunity to meet a very good friend of mine for the first time after knowing her online for the past three years. We met during PotterWar and she helped out a great deal with advice, spreading the word, all sorts of lovely things. She teaches middle school on the east coast, but she lived just far enough away that I wasn’t able to just hop in the car one day and go meet her. But she’s been an invaluable friend – she’s helping me with countless project, as have her students, and she’s always been great fun to talk to.

She came here to DC for a seminar of some sort, so we planned to meet up today downtown. Originally we were going to go to this Italian restaurant near Dupont Circle, but when my friend Neil and I drove past it a while before we planned to meet up and realized it wasn’t in the best part of town. So I called her, and we decided that I’d just pick her up and we’d go some place else. After much wandering and me losing my way, we finally ended up at Chef Geoff’s. Some of you may remember that I’ve been there before, last November-ish. I went there with Producing Dean and Translating Drew, to discuss potential production and funding options. Just like last time, the food was fantastic. I actually ended up ordering the same thing I did last time – the ‘Smoked Mozzarella, Prosciutto, and Oregano Grilled Pizza’ and the ‘Double Chocolate Torte with Raspberries and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.’ Oh my, can you say heaven? Mmm, that torte… It’s so rich and so dense that I literally couldn’t finish it, but it was to die for.

After that, I tried to take her and Neil to see the Washington National Cathedral, but several things got in the way. First, if I had gone the way I knew, I could have gotten us to the Cathedral in under half an hour while avoiding Georgetown traffic and managing to cover two state borders. But instead, I followed the signs out of DC and got mildly lost and it ended up taking an hour instead. Second, the Cathedral was closed. I felt so bad! I swear, I’ve been there past six o’clock in the evening before! At least the gardens were still open, so we strolled through that (I did so barefoot – I loath shoes), and I got some pictures of lovely lilies (sorry, the pics are kind of big – I didn’t have the heart to shrink them, you’d miss the detail!) After that, I navigated my way back through Georgetown (wasn’t going to go the beltway again, I knew I’d get lost), and found my way back to Constitution Avenue without getting lost *once*! I’m SO proud of myself! I navigated through DC from 1:30pm all the way until 9:00pm, and I only got lost when I followed the signs rather than following my memory. How impressive is that?

When we got back to Constitution Avenue, I found the perfect parking space that was just a short stroll to our destination – the WWII Memorial. My teacher friend hadn’t seen it yet and we had been talking for a long time at dinner about the Holocaust, so it seemed appropriate. Plus, Neil’s never seen it before, so I thought that’d be good. I tried to explain as much as I could remember about the significance of the Memorial’s architecture, and I think I did a pretty decent job. It was a lovely walk and we ended up sitting for a while with our feet in the rainbow pool. I’ve decided that’s my favorite thing to do there, just sit on the steps, my feet in the pool, looking west toward the Lincoln Memorial, just thinking or talking with a good friend.

By that point, it was getting pretty late, so I drove her back to where she was staying and we said our good-byes. I’m really hoping I can see her again soon, I had so much fun talking with her and learning about all sorts of things. Teachers – of any kind – really are wonderful people, especially the ones who love what they do. They always seem like they’re out to enrich the world and everyone in it, they want to make everything beautiful and more enlightened by sharing knowledge. That may sound hokey, but I really appreciate it. I respect that kind of person and love being around anyone like that. Plus, today, it was great to be able to spend time talking with an adult. That felt so wonderful and refreshing.

So today’s been a good day. Also, I forgot to mention – before I met up with my teacher friend, I managed to navigate through Georgetown, parallel park perfectly, and I went to Lush! Hooray! Neil was a really good sport – he just got into town late last night and already he’s just so easy-going and is up for anything. I mentioned him a few weeks ago – he’s moving in with my family for a few months just for a change of scenery. I basically grew up with him, back in Tucson. We met when we were both nine and basically saw each other every other day until we were about 15. I haven’t seen him in a while, I’ve really missed him. But now he’s going to be camping out in our guest room, so I get to see him every day again!

So, Lush! That made me very, very happy! I’ve been without Lush for about two months now, and let me tell you, I can feel and see the difference in my hair. It gets frizzy *so* quickly – easily within an hour of taking a shower – and it’s just not bouncy anymore. Well, not as bouncy as it should be. And the curls aren’t anywhere near as tight. So, I bought enough to last me a whole year, because it’s a pain to get in and out of Georgetown. I bought two new kinds of shampoo that I’ve never tried before – Daddy-O and I Love Juicy. I’m sure they’ll be great, but I’ll be really shocked if they live up to my absolute favorite: Ibiza Party. I also got two bottles of my tried and true conditioner, Coolaulin. I also splurged and bought some Back For Breakfast shower gel. Mmm. All of that – a whole year’s supply – for around $90.

I know that sounds horrendously expensive, but let me explain myself. With regular shampoos, I go through $3.50 bottles of L’Oreal shampoo and conditioner in just about a week, simply because I have to use so much since I have so much hair on my head, it’s so thick, so tangled, and so curly. With 52 weeks in the year, a bottle of shampoo and conditioner each week, what’s the grand total from buying the “cheap” products? $364. Yup, and that’s the cheap stuff. So I don’t feel bad about this at all, especially considering that with Lush stuff I use half as much gel since I don’t have to combat the frizziness as roughly. And rather than taking an hour to brush out my hair, it only takes two minutes. That means that, thanks to Lush, it takes me only four minutes to brush out my hair, gel it, and I’m ready to go. Granted, I’m going with a wet head, but I can’t blow-dry my hair anyway.

Can I explain the expensive shower gel I bought? No, but hey, I love it, it makes my skin all soft, and then I smell like sweet lemons. 🙂 Mmm. Lemons. That’s one of my all-time favorite scents.

So today’s been fabulous. I drove a lot, I parallel parked perfectly on multiple occasions (I even did a victory dance after parking in a particularly tight spot in Georgetown – yup, victory danced in public), got to meet a really cool friend, and spent the whole day with one of my favorite old friends in the world. And hey! Tomorrow, my hair’s going to look fab!