This past Saturday was different. Yesterday turned into the most DC Saturday I might have had yet. It was all spontaneous. At 7pm on Friday night, I didn't think I'd be doing anything Saturday but reading and catching up on some TV I missed during the week. How wrong I was. Here's how things went...
Friday night. 8pm ish. "Okay, Kristen, I'll run the 5K with you tomorrow morning," I hear myself say. "Are you sure?!" she asks with trepidation, "it's okay if you don't want to." "No," I declare, "I should do it. What time are we leaving?" "I shouldn't tell you," she says, "because then you won't want to go...six fifteen." "6:15!!!" I cry. "No, fifty, five-oh," she says. "Fine, I"ll do it," I say. WHAAAAAAAT????? Who am I?! Seriously, what? I've never run a 5K before. I don't like waking up early. I REALLY don't like waking up early on Saturdays that are supposed to be sunny and breezy and 79 degrees and perfect. Um...
Yeaaaahhhh, about that. I walked less than half a mile of the 3.2 we had to go. That is to say, I ran most of the way. Impressed? I sure was. I had a time of 36:18...but only because Kristen let me run ahead of her at the finish line.
So that was to be the end. I was tired, I was hungry, I really really needed to shower. In the car on the ride home Kristen and Cory (pictured) started talking about the Nats game that afternoon. "Do you want to go?" they ask me. "Sure, I've never been to a Nats game before," I cry. WHAAAAT??? That means I'm doing something else on a Saturday. Who am I? (FYI, the Nats are the Washington Nationals - our MLB team.) Kristen and I get home about 10am to shower and change for the early afternoon baseball game and she listens to a message from her mom. Her mom says something along the lines of - hey I have 2 extra tickets to the White House Rose Garden tour at 10:30, you want to go? After a one minute discussion about whether it's worth it not to shower and just jet out the door again, we decide to go. Yes, we went. No shower, just a quick change, a readjustment of the pig tails, a spritz of perfume, dab of powder and some lip gloss, and we're speeding off to the city to make the tour time. We find a parking spot about a mile away from where we're supposed to be and it's about 10:15am. So guess what? We have to RUN to get there on time. I just ran a 5K!!!! And yes, I'm running again. Totally worth it, though. I mean, how could I pass up this opportunity to see things like this close up...
Glorious! I never thought I'd get so close to the White House. It was beautiful, PLUS the Marine Corps Band played the theme song from The Incredibles. And Kristen's mom and I played the game find-the-cutest-secret-service-guy-in-the-place. I won.
So after the tour it was time to head to the Nats Stadium at the Navy Yard for the game against the Florida Marlins. I was really excited. Though I couldn't care less about baseball when it's on TV, I do love the atmosphere of a game. I can enjoy just about any sport when I see it live, and this game was no exception. I got a chili dog from Hard Times (delish), walked up to the nose bleed section with the gang and enjoyed the first few innings. It was so much fun. (One thing I don't have is a picture of my farmer's tan to show you how much sun I got, but you can imagine. It was a perfect day, as I mentioned previously, but it would have been an even better day if I had been wearing a tank top instead of a cap-sleeved shirt. Blimey.)
Now, Kristen's mom loves the Nats and goes to lots of games. She's also good about working her way down into the good seats as the game progresses. We let her work her magic with one of the section ticket-checker men, and we ended up sitting about 60 or so feet behind first base. Sweet! Best baseball game I've been to by far. I'm soooo going back.
You might assume that I'd had quite a full day at that point and went home to (finally!) shower and rest. Nope, wrong again, lads and lassies. My final outing was to the National Mall, where "America Sings" was taking place. What's that? I don't know. All I do know is that high school choirs from across the country were on the Mall, on Earth Day, singing. I went because some good family friend of the Ryans, the Hamiltons, were representing Jenks High School at America Sings. So I saw the JHS choirs rock out like it was their job, and got to hang out with some great people on the most perfect evening this town has seen all year. By that time, of course, I was sweaty, smelly, tired, sore and very dusty from all the dirt on the Mall. I bid my farewells to the Hamiltons and got on the Metro to go back home.
I wrapped up my day in style. I got clean, ate some delicious salmon and asparagus my roommate and her boyfriend had prepared on our brand new grill, ate outside with them and another roommate to the sounds of a beautiful spring night and the light of a dozen candles. It was fabulous.
I can't believe that I did so much in one day. I did four things I'd never done before on the most gorgeous day ever and it couldn't have been more perfect. (Well, besides the not showering bit.) What fun! I'm incredibly sore now from the whole running ridiculousness, but I'm quite proud of myself for actually running a race. Never thought that would happen. I have some great shots from the White House lawn tour, some great memories from cheering on the Nats, and good conversations with friends I didn't even realize I'd get to see. Good stuff. Now don't go getting any hair brained ideas, alright? I'm not doing this again next week. Rest assured, next weekend I will be sleeping till noon, waking up for some brunch, getting back in bed and staying in my pj's all day so I can reread some Harry Potter. That's how I roll.
