I’m sorry to be so juvenile, but why is it that the Albert Einstein Memorial here in DC makes him look like a giant pile of sculpted poo? Look at the poor guy!     On Thursday, my friend Ryan arrived for a weekend visit and to go to a Halloween dance with me. But Thursday was reserved for touring around DC and Northern Virginia. I was going to post pictures yesterday but eh, I’ve been busy, sleepy, and not feeling so great. So yeah, I’m late. But here, check out these lovely pictures from DC.

    After spending the morning and early afternoon downtown, we went to Great Falls National Park in Virginia, which is home to a lovely little waterfall and a quaint park. We had a lovely picnic at the park, overlooking the falls, and chanced to meet a cute fuzzy little squirrel. He was very interested in my sandwich, so I fed him a few scraps of bread so that I could carefully position him to get some David-Attenborough-esque nature photographs. 🙂 That squirrel came so close, it was amazing! Check out the pictures, I’m SO pleased with them.

    Yesterday we didn’t do much because I felt real crappy after walking around so much. Today, however, we did a lot! After I accidentally slept in too late (whoops…) we went to see ‘Napoleon Dynamite’. If you haven’t seen that movie, go see it now! And, most importantly, wait alllll the way until after the credits – there’s an extra special surprise. It really is hilarious, if you get off-the-wall kind of humor. It was my second time seeing it, and Ryan’s seventh (he got to go to a bunch of free previews back in California. Lucky.)

    After the movie, we went to Sweetwater Tavern for the second time this weekend. Why? Because my evil plan is working… mwahahaha! Er, that is, I’m slowly converting the entire world to the Way of the Root Beer – after one visit, Ryan was craving Tex Mex Eggrolls so we went back for nothing but appetizers and a chocolate waffle. Mmmmm. Tex Mex Eggrolls…

    Then, back home to get all spiffed up, then off to my favorite place in DC – Glen Echo National Park – for a special Halloween swing dance in the grand Spanish Ballroom. It was *awesome*! They had dance lessons from 8 to 9 before the dance itself started. I learned how to swing a bit, did a lot of twirling, and met a lot of strange people. They rotated partners during the lesson because it’s a kind of social dance, meant for people to get to know each other and everything. A ton of the guys could have easily been my Father, which made it a little odd. They were mostly very nice, though, albeit some were a touch on the stinky side. There was one really sweet old guy who had managed to figure out a few things I was messing up on and kindly advised me on what to do to fix it. After a minute of dancing with him, I learned so much.

    On the other hand, there were guys like the one who came up to me and his first words were, “Wow, you’re… gorgeous.” Sure, that’s a huge compliment and I suddenly felt very pretty in my black silk dupioni gown. But, that coming from a guy who’s easily 48-years-old and almost seven feet tall, that’s just a little on the scary side.

    So, my black gown was a hit. I felt so… floaty. Hehe. The skirt was quite wide at the bottom, so I wore a cute little petticoat underneath it. It twirled so nicely when I spun, I felt like a little kid again who wouldn’t buy a dress unless it’d pass the Twirl Test. It fit *so* nicely, despite the fact I somehow managed to lose some weight in my waist in the past week without trying (hoorah for that!). Plus, the sleeves I designed, uber-fabulous! I was very happy in it, felt very regal showing up in a silk vintage gown, on the arm of a nice guy in a zoot suit. Man, that was fun.

    Unfortunately, after an hour-long lesson in swing dancing, I only had the energy to dance for maybe 30/40 minutes with Ryan. He was very considerate and didn’t step on my toes once, but sure enough, I rammed the little toes on my left foot into his shoe at one point and then I was pretty much done. One decrepid slow dance later (I didn’t even have the energy to put my hand on his shoulder, haha), we watched the costume contest then went home. And holy crap, I’m SO exhausted now. My feet are screaming at me, my knees are bruised, and I’m going to wait for my pain medication to kick in, then I’m going to sleep for hours. I took some pictures at the dance, but I left my camera downstairs and right now, I really don’t feel like going to get it. So tough nookies, you’ll get cool Glen Echo pictures tomorrow. In the mean time, I shall be sleeping, dreaming of lindy hopping and pretty dresses. Good night!