the word!

first reverb10 assignment (directly from my old friend Gwen Bell): choose one word for 2010, and one for 2011.

2010: empowered

I'd like to store this year away as the one in which I took control over my life, and felt the rush of having power over and owning my own decisions. loving it.

2011: kinetic

Time to put the power in motion, and to make giant leaps forward in all sorts of ways. it's time. potential to kinetic, maybe?

so hilarious

sleep talking man

snOMG in DC

favorite images:

- walking to m's house Wednesday morning in the snowiest, blowiest stroll of my adult life. This was the pummeling we got after an already historic weekend of blizzard, the point at which most people went from being delighted and playful to exhausted and feeling tiny, defenseless and humbled in the face of our natural disaster. so, the new foot of snow was collecting on top of the already fallen 2 feet and the winds were fierce. just me and a lone snowplow on the DC streets, both going about .5 miles an hour. I occasionally had to walk backwards b/c the sharp snow hitting my face was making me cry (m's snow goggles fixed that problem for the rest of the day), and at one point the wind was so strong it fixed me at 14th and V. The winds also gave the city a desert-ish feel, constantly smoothing out the continuously falling snow into wavey dunes. like this, but white. beautiful.

- Saturday, at Meridian Hill park, when everyone was energized and prepared and letting the building anticipation burst out. there were several different sledding areas: one down each short but steep east-west staircase, which allowed for substantial speed to build up and had a ready perch for onlookers (lots of friendly whoa-ing and oo-ing and oh-ing and advice giving (lift your legs up!)) and the other in the park proper, with sledders winding their way down the large slopey expanse, around trees and bushes, which required some more navigational skills and felt a little more Narnia fantastical. Skiers took over the longer, north-south staircase, smoothing out the middle for a long stretch that ended with a solidly built up up-slope, making for a proper ski jump. They stood at the top and planned out their jumps in quiet, thoughtful conferences (ok, you'll be on the right and i'll be on the left? we'll go down simultaneously? *pause* ok, why don't you go first instead? then i'll follow. *pause* just don't fall. *pause* *swoosh*), and then executed them precisely and (usually) impeccably. I found myself unexpectedly moved by their efforts and their dignity in action.

favorite activities:

-taking refuge in 14th street establishments Wednesday afternoon and evening. M and our usually too busy roommates were able to join us for some laptop time at Busboys, ostensibly to work, and then for hot toddies at Bar Pilar, which led to an impromptu (actually, the whole thing was pretty impromptu) stop at St. Ex to see what kind of action was happening on the dance floor. It was "bring an ipod" night, and one extremely enthusiastic guy wanted his mix to be on all night. He bribed us with some tasty drinks and kept saying "isn't this the best dance song?!" and "tell them this is the greatest dance mix you've ever heard!". everyone was still in a generous mood after all their days of no work and gamely jumped around.

- Sunday with a, drinking tea at Teaism, finding a few quality second hand threads at Secondi (i bought a beautiful prussian blue puffy vest), stopping by a new used book and art store on Connecticut, and then finally drinking wine and eating ravioli in my snow cave before going over to a super bowl party. I suppose this is all pretty standard Sunday fare, but somehow felt more exciting having to stomp through snow drifts to get from place to place, and knowing that more snow and more days off work were coming.

- "hanging out" on my porch for a minute last night - absurd. snow past my knees, chairs buried past their seats. I made my way to the table and got as far as I could to take a minute to "sit" on one of the chairs.


while I did waste tremendous amounts of time over the course of the week, I was able to walk and walk and walk throughout the city, and somehow to think about some big picture changes I may want to make in my life and make some steps towards them. Maybe it was all the extra time that allowed me to think further, maybe it was the fact that I was so stuck and so limited in what I could do that allowed me to think about life without feeling stressed or urgent or anxious. anyhow, i feel totally energized. We're off to West Virginia to hang out in a internetfree, cellphone free cabin for the weekend, which sounds delicious. If I have any kind of cabin fever right now, it is a cabin fever for my neighborhood, which I haven't left since last Thursday. I couldn't be more ready to get out of town, get into nature and do some long distance X Country skiing.