I decided to try and get a used bike off Craigslist: I paid $300 for Bike #1, a Fuji hybrid that was a bit too big for me (the seller was a petite girl about two inches shorter than me so I am not quite sure how that worked, but oh well) and that badly needed a tune-up.  I expended a lot of unnecessary frustration and tears over the next couple weeks, debating whether to shell out another $80 for a tune-up or re-sell it on Craigslist at a potential loss, and blaming Alan for “pressuring” me into getting a bike that I wasn’t happy with.  Eventually I made Alan take care of it, and he dutifully re-sold it for $250 to some girl who apparently didn’t even bother to test ride it before taking it home with her.

I thought that experience would cause me to stay away from Craigslist, but a couple days later I was once again browsing the bike pages.  I found a guy who was selling a number of bikes, lured by the part of his ads that said they were “cleaned, tuned-up and ready to ride!”  Alan and I met him in the parking lot of the Greenbelt metro station, where he explained that he was a medical device salesman from Rehoboth Beach, DE who bought and fixed up used bikes on the side.  Anyway, he seemed knowledgeable and nice enough, and I left with Bike #2, a Trek 7300 hybrid, minus the seat and suspension seatpost, which had made the bike a little two high for me.  That weekend we went to REI to buy a new seat and non-suspension seatpost and FINALLY I had a bike I felt I’d gotten a good deal on and, more importantly, that I was happy riding.

Bike #2

Since then, biking’s really started to grow on me. I’ve only ever owned two other bicycles: when we lived in Mountain View (which despite the name is very flat) I had a crappy mountain bike that I got off Craigslist for $25 and only used for riding the mile from our apartment to the light rail station.  Before that, an aqua green Huffy from when I was in elementary school. So, I’m still kinda exhilarated by the fact that I have this nice adult bike, with working shifters and everything, that makes it easy to get to all sorts of places!  A couple Saturdays ago we biked across the Potomac over to Arlington, back over to Georgetown, then down Rock Creek Parkway along the Mall on the way home. This past Saturday we volunteered with the Georgia Tech alumni club at an elementary school in Anacostia, an easy 2.5-mile ride from our apartment.  And on Sunday late afternoon, in perhaps our most leisurely outing yet, we biked over to the World War II memorial and sat for a while, surrounded by mostly well-behaved tourists and the sound of the memorial’s fountains, savoring the remaining hours of golden daylight and 60-degree weather.  I’m starting to think that every weekend could be like this.

1. Cigarette smoke
2. Humid air after a heavy rain
3. Freon
4. Mothballs
5. City underground steam
6. Incense

Around 4:30 or so, though, I decided I ought to venture outside at least once. Alan, who had already gone out in the morning to check if the grocery store was open (it was not), obligingly suited up with me and said he’d come along. He suggested we make the walk down to and back up along the waterfront, a circle of several blocks. As we walked along we passed other people from our neighborhood out with their dogs, or, like us, just enjoying and marveling at the snow. Alan ran around throwing snowballs into the trees, causing the snow hanging on the tree branches to come showering down. I lagged behind, taking pictures. Walking was a new experience: every step was deliberate, a balancing act as the snow shifted and compressed underneath our feet (even on paths already blazed by other walkers). Everything just felt so beautiful… and fleeting, too.

Maybe that’s why, when we completed our circle, Alan was ready to head inside, but I wasn’t yet. The sun was also starting to set, and part of me felt like I should try and capture that. So I told Alan I’d be back soon, and started walking west on M Street, in hopes of finding a nice view of the Washington Monument further down the street. I’d just planned to explore a little more, but one snow-covered view led to another and I kept finding interesting things to photograph, and before I knew it, half an hour had passed and I had wandered half a mile down the road. I could see the dome of the Jefferson Memorial peeking out over the top of the overpass in front of me, and I figured since I’d come this far already, I might as well walk to the bridge, to see if I could get some nice shots of the Memorial against the fading sunset. (I also borrowed a cellphone from a guy passing by so I could call Alan and let him know I hadn’t fallen into a snow drift or anything, since I hadn’t brought my phone with me).

Getting to the actual pedestrian part of the bridge took a little longer than I thought, and some tramping through particularly slushy snow, but finally, I reached the bridge. I was rewarded with this view of the Memorial and the partly-frozen-over Potomac:

But then I looked to my right and almost gasped at the view of the Washington Monument – it had been relatively obscured during my walk and so it seemed to appear out of nowhere:

I found the white of the Monument (illuminated by its floodlights) really beautiful against the silver and white trees, sagging over the edge of the Tidal Basin.

I didn’t have a chance to take pictures for very long before it became dark and I figured I ought to get home. But as I walked back along the empty streets, occasionally moving off to the side to let a snowplow go by, I felt kind of proud of myself for being an intrepid little snow explorer, and for letting the desire to get a good photograph motivate me. As someone who doesn’t really consider herself a photographer, I don’t often get to experience that feeling.

Things that are exciting right now: it’s snowing! And not just any snow, either. You’ve probably heard, but we’re in the middle of an “epic snowstorm” that’s predicted to drop (according to the latest NWS update) 20-30″ of snow on the metro DC area. And this is the second time we’ve had double-digit snowfall this winter (the first time was just before the Christmas holidays). Not having experienced this much snow ever in my life, I’m looking forward to this second blizzard and being snowed in. And if we are really going stir-crazy and need to get out, Metro will still be running trains on their underground routes. One of the benefits of living in the city, I guess. (My inner jury is still out as to whether I prefer city life to suburban life – I know, I really WANT to be a city person – so I’ll tally that one up in the “city” column.)

Also, new year’s resolutions. I’ve actually thought about them this year. I’m not normally one to care about resolutions but for some reason this year I’ve come up with very quantitative ones that I have taken great care to make realistic, like:

-Listen to more music: log 1000 tracks on last.fm (currently I’m at 4869)
-Make at least one post on this blog a month (well, with the exception of January… oops)
-Establish a better personal routine: make a habit of doing at least one thing on a semi-regular basis (like, wear my contacts, eat breakfast, exercise)

…

Hmm… I guess I really just wanted to document my last.fm count (which is pretty sad, given that Ethan’s at 44,581…).

Anyway, another exciting thing: I’m going to NYC next weekend! Another nice thing about DC is that it’s relatively inexpensive and convenient to take the bus to NYC (and the buses these days have wireless and individual power outlets for each seat, so you’re pretty much set). I’m meeting some friends there who are flying in from Atlanta, and we’re staying at a hostel near Columbus Circle. We’re near Central Park and within walking distance of Times Square. I’ve never stayed at a hostel (when I studied abroad in Europe my sophomore year, we stayed in pretty nice hotels) – so I’m kind of looking forward to adding that to my superficial list of “travel-savvy experiences.” You know what I mean.

Aaand that’s about it for this first post in a while. Alan made a dinner reservation for some nice restaurant near his work, so out I go, into the snow and underground.

When I got back from lunch, I gave it a little more thought. I had gone bowling last night as part of a team social for work. Because the bowling alley we went to was on a military base, I’d had to get out my wallet to show my ID at the entrance of the base, which meant there was a good chance that I left it at the bowling alley. And yet, I figured one of my coworkers would surely have picked it up and given it back to me. With that in mind, I thought perhaps I’d just left it at home somewhere. I mentally retraced my morning movements around our apartment, but my subconscious couldn’t really remember anything. So with more calm than usual, I decided not to worry about it until I got home later that evening and could confirm whether or not my wallet was really lost.

On the metro ride home from work, I pulled out my cellphone for the first time all day. I confess that I have pretty crappy cellphone etiquette — not that many people besides Alan call me, so usually my cellphone stays buried at the bottom of my purse or backpack, and I can go whole days without checking it. Today, though, I had a missed call from an unknown local number at 10am. I immediately became concerned, and listened to the accompanying voicemail. It turned out to be from someone from my State Farm office, telling me what I expected to hear: that someone had found my wallet. That person had called the only phone number in my wallet — the one listed on my auto insurance card — and had left her number with State Farm, and now the State Farm agent was passing along her number to me.

I was halfway home, but got off the train at the next metro station, not only to ensure consistent cellphone reception (although my provider, Verizon, is the only one that gets reception in the underground portions of the DC Metro, it can still be sketchy through tunnels), but also to avoid the embarrassment of having everyone else around me on the train hear that I’d lost my wallet. As I dialed my wallet-finder’s number, I noticed with some trepidation that my cellphone battery was down to one bar. Luckily, it held out, my finder picked up, and, happily, she sounded just as relieved as I was that I’d finally contacted her.

“I was about to go over to your house to see if I could find you!” she told me in between my gushes of “oh my gosh, thank you so much” and “I can’t believe you’ve gone to so much trouble already!” We arranged to meet at the metro station where she lived. “Okay, but just wait inside the station, I’ll come down there so you don’t have to pay the exit fare,” she said, to my further disbelief — so considerate! I told her I’d call again when I got there.

Ten minutes later, we finally met at the turnstiles of the Cleveland Park metro station. Upon seeing her — a short, motherly lady in her late thirties or forties, Filipino maybe? she had a slight accent that I couldn’t quite identify — I asked, “Can I give you a hug?” She handed back my wallet and I gushed more thanks while searching for a $20 bill I could give her (which I didn’t have, but she refused to accept anything anyway). She told me that her grandfather had actually been the one to find it, sitting on top of one of the car racing machines (which I had played) in the arcade room at the bowling alley. She hadn’t wanted to leave it with the bowling alley, she said, because she had left her wallet at a Burger King once, and later, after she’d gotten it back from the manager, she found charges on her statement. And — this was the part that made me feel incredibly grateful on top of everything else — I learned that she and her grandfather hadn’t been at the bowling alley until this morning… which meant that my wallet had sat in the arcade room all night without anyone finding or taking it.

I think I must have shaken her hand a dozen times before we bid goodbye. As I headed back toward the platform, she laughed and waved after me, “Be careful, don’t lose it!” My final stroke of good fortune happened several minutes later, as I was trying to send a text message to Alan: my cellphone finally ran out of battery.

On the train ride back home, I couldn’t get over just how nice this woman had been, and felt a renewed faith in the goodness of human beings. I had a piece of paper she had brought down with her — a Mapquest printout showing directions from her address to mine. I thought about using that to send her a thank-you note, but guessed that she didn’t include an apartment number with her address. I wondered if I could figure it out with a little online research. It was only then that I realized that the name she had given my State Farm agent, the name which I’d called her by all night — “Divina Grace” — might not have been her real name after all.

We took the metro downtown and met Kim and Daniel at the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House, and to my surprise, even at that hour, there was quite a crowd of people there, huddled around the nearby firepit, taking pictures, trying to find their specific state tree among the circle of regular Christmas trees surrounding the giant one. It was pretty impossible not to feel a little bit of the holiday spirit, especially since we were all bundled up with our heavy jackets, scarves, gloves, and earmuffs, with our breaths making thick white puffs in the air.

I had brought my camera with me, of course, outfitted with my new image-stabilization lens (“Kim and I both forgot to bring our cameras,” Daniel said upon our arrival, “but we figured you’d have yours”; I’m glad I didn’t let them down), and we took the requisite photos of the four of us in front of the big Tree. They came out about as well as I could have hoped, considering that it was nighttime, we were backlit by a giant glowing tree, and we had to get a random passerby who didn’t know how to use my SLR to take it for us.

Afterwards, we walked the five blocks to Tonic Restaurant & Bar in Foggy Bottom, where we found a table right under one of the heating vents and defrosted with some beers. Alan left soon after to meet up with some other friends of his who were headed to Georgetown, while Daniel, Kim and I had another round, passing the time talking about work, how our Thanksgivings went, Christmas schedules, inauguration, and! plans for a possible weekend trip to New York City one of these days. When the bar started to grow empty, we finished up our drinks and got ready to head out, putting on our coats and warm things again. We walked to the Foggy Bottom metro station and waited for our trains: Kim’s, a westbound blue line train, came first, so we bid her goodbye; Daniel and I boarded the next blue line train in the opposite direction and rode together a few stops before Daniel had to get off to transfer.

It was only then that I got out my cellphone to check the time and saw that it was past 1am. I had a missed call from Alan, too. After calling him back and learning that he, too, was on his way home (in his friend’s car), I spent the rest of the train ride in the relative quiet of the late-night metro-riding crowd, my slight alcohol buzz wearing off, happy at how quickly and how pleasantly the evening had gone by. I think it was the first time I’d been on the Metro that late, and the first time I felt that I wasn’t such a stranger in DC anymore.

It especially feels like we have a lot more kitchen stuff. Which, don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining about. We do have a nicer kitchen here in DC — granite countertops, stainless steel GE Profile appliances, a gas stove! — so in that respect, I suppose, it justifies the increase in our material possessions.

It also inspired me to make a list of my favorite kitchen things, things that I’ve found to be particularly useful in our new apartment — even though I’m guessing most of the people that still keep up with this weblog (comment and let me know who you are!) probably don’t care. I was also partially inspired by this post at Not Martha, listing things that the author likes in hopes that they might make good gift ideas. In the same vein, maybe my list of kitchen things will be a source of gift ideas for some of you.

KitchenAid Artisan 5-qt. Stand Mixer

I’ve wanted one of these since… eh, 2005 or 2006, but could never really justify the purchase (case in point: my sister got one for me several Christmases ago, but I made her return it). I would tell myself we didn’t have the space, that I wouldn’t really use it all that often, that it would be a pain to move it when we left California, etc. Anyway, this was Alan’s parents’ wedding gift to us, and surprisingly, I think it might be the second most-used appliance in our kitchen after the food processor. On my first attempt using it, I made a two-layer cake, and it came out great. Since then I’ve made sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, all with great success. Alan blames the mixer for any weight he’s gained recently. At $250-$300, it’s probably a bit much to be a Christmas present, but… maybe it can be a present to yourself.

Rival Ice Cream Maker

This was another one of those things that I thought would be nice to have, but that we wouldn’t use that often. But so far, I’ve used it to make strawberry and melon sorbet, and frozen yogurt a la Pinkberry. I just keep the canister in the freezer, and I can make frozen treats anytime. Plus, I tell myself that by doing so, I’m increasing the energy efficiency of my freezer.

Desidry Stay Fresh Bread Box

I was raised in a household where the go-to starch was rice. So I don’t really eat a lot of bread, relatively speaking. I also dislike whole wheat bread. Despite this, Alan insists on having whole wheat sandwich bread on hand AT ALL TIMES. As a result, we almost never made it through an entire loaf without the last few slices going moldy… until we got this bread box. We found it at the Container Store, and the girl who checked us out said she had one too and waxed enthusiastically about it. In terms of bread we would have thrown away, I think the box has already paid for itself — the loaf that’s in there right now is probably going on its third or fourth week, mold-free. The bread box has a crappy rating on Amazon because the reviewers complain about it being hard to open and close — I have to agree — but it’s a small price to pay for its preservation ability.

Escali Primo Digital Multifunctional Scale

This is one of the few kitchen items that I kept during our move from CA to DC. I probably use it most often, actually, to calculate postage. I also use it weigh to foods for cooking and baking, of course. It’s compact, has a tare function, and can switch between lbs/oz and grams. That’s pretty much all you need. Plus, if you want to get fancy, it comes in, like, twenty different colors.

Cuisinart Pro Classic 7-Cup Food Processor

Another one of the things that made it from CA to DC, this is probably the single most useful appliance in our kitchen (not counting stuff like pots and pans). I used to have a box grater, but we got rid of it during the move and I haven’t missed it — I just use the food processor’s grating disc and it gets the job done 3x quicker (although cleanup is a bit more complicated). I frequently make pesto and hummus with it, Alan makes salsa, and last weekend when I made my first homemade potstickers, I used it to grind up shrimp for the filling. I’ve even made cheesecake with it.

Aroma 1.5L Stainless Steel Electric Water Kettle

I’ve especially started to appreciate this now that I’ve discovered how easy it is to brew your own sweet tea. With the kettle, I can make up a pitcherful of sweet tea in less than half an hour, and most of that time is just waiting around — for the water to boil, for the tea to steep, etc. When I’m really in a hurry, I use it to “pre-boil” water for cooking — it seems to be a little faster than bringing water to a boil over the stove. Just don’t use it to warm up a small quantity of milk… unless you want burned milk stuck on the bottom of your kettle.

(quick summary, for those of you who don’t follow along with me on my Flickr stream, or my LiveJournal, or wherever else I play around on the internet these days)

June: left the Bay Area, moved back to Georgia
August: got married (!!!), went on our honeymoon to Costa Rica
September: moved to Washington, DC

I guess my excuse is that I’m too busy “transitioning” to post anything here, but at the same time, aren’t transitions usually GOOD reasons to post? I’m sad I never wrote a sentimental “Goodbye, Bay Area” post, because certainly, there are things I miss about it — the weather and accessible farmers’ markets are only the first things that spring to mind.

And getting married, of all things, definitely should have deserved some reflection. Although, I must tell you, being married is pretty much a non-event. The wedding itself was, and I remember it as a happy blur, a joyous celebration, a relief (I didn’t sleep a wink the night before). But if you asked me how life has changed since Alan and I got married, I would be hard put to give you an answer. In fact, when Alan and I went on a weekend trip to New Orleans a couple weeks ago with some friends of his from Georgia, at first I would introduce myself as Jennifer and then qualify that with “Alan’s wife” — but that always felt rather strange, and I stopped doing it after a while. I suppose one day I’ll get used to it.

I feel like there should be more, a reflective thought, a clever conclusion, but I think this’ll have to be it for now. Baby steps, I guess.

Also, in the process of googling him, I found that Carl is on Facebook. Who knew?