Soccer

Last night I played my second soccer game with "The Once Mighty Growlers" (it's our team name -- the team used to be The Mighty Growlers, but they've all been playing together for about 10 years and are now all in their 30s and 40s and have slowed down a bit.  I am the token young player).  I signed up to play on a coed soccer league mostly because I thought it would be fun to play the game that I used to love when I was a kid, but also because it would be a nice switch-up to working out at the gym every night, and maybe I would meet some new cool people. 

Last night's game started out really well.  I was having fun and our team wasn't doing half-bad.  Jordan had flown in to DC an hour before the game, so I dragged him (not drugged him) to the game and he was on the sidelines ready with my water bottle when I was subbed out.  I was in good spirits.

The second half started and I ran out on to the field, still pumped.  I was able to make a few OK moves, even after getting tangled up with legs and ball and falling down hard to the turf a couple of times.  That hurts!  Like a bad rug burn.  Anyway.  ..  So I'm defending the goal and the other team is rushing towards it with the ball.  Their player passes the ball to the center so that another player can run up and strike it in to the goal.  But no!  I'm ready.  I'm pumping my arms and legs, running fast - SPRINTING toward the ball, and I kick it away before the other team can get to it.  I felt super awesome for about a split second...  until the ball spun backwards and started heading back toward our goal.  At that point, everything sloowwwwed doooowwwwwwnnnnnn.  I watched in horror as the ball drifted up, floating in the air like a balloon, and nonchalantly coasted up and over our keeper's head..  He jumps for it, slowly moving his arms together, hands advancing toward the ball to catch it in his grip....  and then after this 5 minute series of events, time sped back up to normal and the ball shoots right in to the net.

CRAPPITY!

That was the worst feeling ever!!  I scored on our own goal.  I felt embarrassed, but mostly SO MAD!  I subbed myself out, fury shaking my body.  How could I have done that!  I probably just lost the game for the team!  Why did the ball spin back over my foot and go backwards?!?  I went over and over it in my head.  So frustrating.  So then I was super nervous the rest of the game.  If we lost because of me, I would feel horrible.  I hardly even know these people.  They'll probably hate me and nickname me girl-who-can-only-score-goal-on-own-team.  Or something else equally as awful.

Luckily we were given a penalty kick with only just over a minute left in the game and we tied it up.  Relief!  Although we would have won the game if I hadn't scored.  UGH.  I was still mad after the game was all done, but then a lot of people came up to me - own team and opposing - who said, "Bad luck!  I've done that before.  Don't worry about it"  and I realized, yeah!  Even the pros do it!!  Ah well.  On to the next game (which is this Friday).  I'll just do my best and that's it!

This is what I looked like after the ball slipped through our goalie's hands

Quickie

Check out the link under 'Sweet Sites' at the bottom of my blog. Worth your time! Be sure to click on the Video link.

'Real' post coming shortly..

Capitol Tour in our Nation's Capital

I have recently wondered when to use Capitol vs Capital. What is the difference? Can I use the words interchangeably like Color vs Colour? Well, no. Turns out there's a difference. Capitol refers to the building. Capital refers to the city. So for all of you who were dumb like me, now you are smarter. You're welcome.

This past Friday night I was invited by my good friend Muriel to accompany her and some other friends in to the capital for a private tour of the capitol. I've been on a tour of this building before, but this tour was going to be something else. You see, her husband is a capitol (or maybe even capital) policeman, and Friday night he had the master key. He got special permission for us to come, so we met up at the capitol around 8:30 or so and we got an exclusive tour of the building and saw a lot of rooms that are off-limits to the general public. It was SO cool! Wandering (not to be confused with wondering) around afterhours, going in to different senator's offices and 'living rooms', the senate's press gallery, the President's Room, etc was exciting. I kind of had this rush of adrenaline as we walked down numerous hallways and went in to one locked room after another.

Inside the Senators' "Living Room"

One of the things that surprised me the most were the teeny tiny spaces that radio stations broadcast from. We saw where CNN, NPR, ABC, etc broadcast their podcasts or radio shows. CRAZY! Seriously, it was the smallest space imaginable. Like enough room to roll a crappy computer chair in there and close the door. That's it. If you want to stand up, you'll have to open the door and go out in to the hallway because there's only floorspace for the one chair. Just baffling. All sorts of offices were hidden between walls and split in to half-floors. It is seriously like a maze in there. I would totally get lost if I weren't directed where to go next.

We also visited Nancy Pelosi's 'wing' area. Pictures covered the walls of the hallways showing her with famous politicians or her swearing in ceremony or her with her family, etc. Despite the fact that I really can't stand the lady, it was just wild walking through there and thinking, "this is where she spends most of her days, every day".

It was fun to go inside the Senate's press gallery. There is a podium in one of the museums in DC that makes it look like you are speaking at the President's podium. I have taken pictures there. But this was the REAL thing! Of course I had to take pics of this room, too.

The President's Room was something that was totally unexpected. I had no idea the President had a room at the Capitol! Turns out that in 1789, George Washington recommended there be a chamber in the Capitol for the President and the Senate to do business. Early presidents like Lincoln and Grant spent significant amount of time in there. After 1921, however, the President's Room was rarely used by presidents. A few historic events took place in the decades that followed. In 1965, President Lyndon B Johnson chose the room as the site for him to sign the Voting Rights Act, in which Martin Luther King, Jr. was in attendance. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan established the tradition of an inaugural day visit to the President's Room and many presidents have followed suit. Even President Obama, keeping with tradition, entered the President's Room in the Capitol building, where he signed his first Presidential orders, at 1:03 p.m. - just before the inaugural luncheon. Pretty dang cool.

Me sitting on the spot indicating the center of DC

Several times I had to take a moment and look out a window to take in the view. DC is an awesome city. I love living here. The enchantment has not worn off over the years - if anything, it has grown. To just step back and think, "I live here!" is really cool. The Cherry Blossom Festival has been going on, and the parade was put on just this past weekend. Tourists have been crawling all over the city, and it's kind of neat to think that people from all over - even different countries - travel here to experience the beauty of DC during this specific 2-week period. (Even though all the extra people make my commutes super irritating) :)

Outside one of the Capitol windows; Washington Monument

All in all, the tour of the Capitol was just plain rad. This city continues to awe me. Even though the West Coast continually calls my name, I'm not quite ready to leave this area of awesomeness.

Cherry Blossoms in DC:

Click on any picture to make it bigger

sisters are awesome

A couple of weeks ago, we had our annual Sisters' Weekend. It was so much fun! This year we all met and stayed at my place. Friday night, Julie and I did a bit of shopping but neither of us were REALLY in the mood (I got some soccer socks and we both got some perfume at VS), so we just stopped and ate at Johnny Rockets instead.


If you've never been, it's pretty good. It is a 50's-style diner with totally American food. Hamburgers, sodas, french fries, chili-cheese fries, Milkshakes, Malts, etc. They even have little jukeboxes at each table so you can listen to whatever oldies song strikes your fancy. The BEST part about Johnny Rockets however (in my humble opinion), is the fact that you can switch out the meat on ANY hamburger to be turkey burger, boca burger, veggie burger, etc. This was awesome news to my non-beef-eating self! I also was able to add a vanilla flavor shot to my Dr. Pepper! Mmmmm. So many fun and yummy options.


After dinner, we headed to the grocery store for some breakfast items and ice cream. Then we got back to my place and plopped down on my insanely-comfortable (not kidding) couchbed and watched '27 Dresses'. Julie and I had gone to see this movie in the theater not long after Steve (her husband, my bro-in-law... keep up!) and I lost our jobs. I had a couple of free movie passes that I had received for my birthday and we both needed a de-stresser. This was a perfect fix! We laughed a lot and had a really good time. We both wondered later if we would think the movie was really that good if we had seen it under different circumstances. So Friday night was our test. I think it passed! We still had a good time watching the movie snuggled under blankets and eating our ice cream.

Saturday morning rolled around and Julie and I lazily ate some breakfast and waited for Tami to show up with her truck and dressers for me! We didn't wait long, but then were anxious to get in to the city to do some sight-seeing. So even though it was raining, we left the dressers in the back of the truck (they were wrapped in shrink-wrap stuff) and the 3 of us headed in to DC for some fun. We grabbed a quick and light lunch, then made our way to the International Spy Museum.

This was surprisingly fun! I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be very interesting and entertaining. When you first get in there, you choose an identity to take on. You have about 3 minutes to memorize your name, occupation, age, place of birth, where you're traveling, why you're traveling there, how long you will be there, etc. Then throughout the museum, you get more information about yourself and your mission, get tested on what you remember, and finally see if your mission was successful and if you were suspicious along the way. Totally fun. We spent a good 2 hours there.

Across the street from the Spy Museum is the National Portrait Gallery.

I had been here once with Jordan, but we were quickly bored and we left. However, I heard afterward that the 3rd floor had the good stuff, so Tami, Julie and I headed up 2 flights of stairs to check it out. Boy oh boy, we were not disappointed! Included in the interesting and modern art work, we found this:

WHA - !? We were all confused and then we couldn't stop laughing. We took some close-ups. I think they deserve the LARGE PHOTO format:

HAhahahahahhaaa! We certainly had a good time taking pictures of this crazy ugly lady.

So after we had our fun and laughs at this lady's expense, we headed back to my place so we could move the party to The Melting Pot! YUM. By the time we got back to my humble abode, we had *just* enough time to unload the wet, slippery, shrink-wrapped dressers from the back of Tami's truck up the stairs to my living room. They sure were heavy and awkward in the pouring rain! Luckily, my down-stairs neighbor was exiting his place as soon as we were entering the building so he graciously helped us up the stairs with both big pieces of furniture. I still need to get him a thank-you treat for his help. As soon as our labors were finished, we scurried to the restaurant to meet our reservation commitment. The fun and laughs continued for almost 3.5 hours while we ate, talked, took pictures and savored every moment.

We were all SO stuffed and exhausted after our marathon day and dinner. So we spent the rest of Saturday night in our PJs under blankets watching another movie. We soon drifted off to sleep.

Sunday morning came around and we had a scrumptious breakfast of french toast! Then we headed to the Pentagon Memorial which has such a humbling feel to it; much like Arlington Cemetery and the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials. I had read up on all the symbolism of everything at the Pentagon Memorial, so we were all able to appreciate everything that we saw on a deeper level. Naturally, we thought back to where we were the day of the September 11th attacks and shared some tears as all the feelings came rushing back to us. It is a really neat memorial.

For more pictures of the Pentagon Memorial the weekend of its dedication, click HERE

Up next was the American History Museum. This has been closed for renovations for a couple of years, but is one of my favorites. It just reopened in November 2008, so none of us had been to it in years, and were excited to see the changes.

Some of it was awesome and some of it we were a bit disappointed by. But it is still one of my favorite museums. They now have the Star Spangled Banner on display. This flag is almost 200 years old and the last time I was at this museum, there was an exhibit showing how they were restructuring and preserving it. It was neat to see it in all of its glory. It is HUGE! Another favorite is the exhibit displaying the First Lady's dresses. I was also very interested in the Americans At War exhibit. There are also little cool things like Dorothy's ruby red slippers, Kermit the Frog puppet, Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, and lots of other fun things.

I think the best part of DC is that the mass majority of museums, monuments and memorials are absolutely free. I never tire of being a tourist in my own city. There is always something to do, something to see, and I still have not seen or done it all. It's fun when I have people come to visit because it gives me an excuse to see all the awesome sights again, and maybe even something I haven't seen yet.

Sisters Weekend was so much fun. I love my sisters. We laughed so hard and really enjoyed each other's company. As of yesterday, Tami has officially moved to Germany. I am so sad to have her live so far away from me now, but SO excited that I get to visit her in Germany! :) I hope we don't have to wait for too many years before we can have another sisters weekend. Maybe next time at Tami's house!