LottieB’s Weblog

It was sunny this morning! A welcome surprise after two days of rain. I ran to my TV to see where Matt Lauer was today, Amsterdam! “Unless we stop for the lights” in his clue referred to the Red Light District. Tomorrow’s clue is this:

“This country is an anagram of a synonym of a homophone of an even prime number.”

Wow, that’s a lot, I don’t know any countries/cities that are anagrams. Apparently a homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. Like the Spanish verb “coger” in Spain it means to catch, like “Coger in Autobus” But, if you were in South America it would mean to fuck, and I don’t think I want to coger an autobus anytime soon, that would hurt! There was also a picture of sunset over a body of water as the second clue. It looks like somewhere in southeast Asia.

After getting my Matt fix I donned my Moroccan ballet flats for the first time and stepped out for another day in DC. However, as the day wore on, my feet began to smell a bit like the flats, ie pigeon poop and horse urine. Yumlish. We’re gonna have to air them out a lot more.

Work was the same old. We had a meeting in Ballston and I also began clearing some stuff out of my new cube and organizing some things in my current. I am to move on Thursday afternoon. Once home I checked out the closet situation. It was absolutely filthy from whatever work they had done, I mean come on. I am glad I moved my clothes out. I vacuumed it and wrote a complaint email to our building manager. The idiots could have at least cleaned up their mess, there was even this weird ass hook thing on the floor.

Wouldn’t they at least have picked that up? And more importantly, what the hell is it?

I was also having a really good hair day all day and it still looked good at 6:38 PM, it was necessary to record my beauty. The picture doesn’t totally do it justice, but just know, it was lookin awesome.

After vacuuming up the closet debris I got my ass to the gym, had a nice workout, and got the elliptical with a TV, SCORE. It’s the little things. Once home I put everything back in my closet, further coding my dresses by season and level of fanciness and choosing a few select items to give to Goodwill.

While I ate dinner I watched two episodes of Jeopardy. During the first episode I was doing really well, I even got the final Jeopardy which NONE of the contestants got. “Which wife of Henry VIII outlived him by 10 years?” This is my forte, it was Anne of Cleves, obvs. Since I was so inspired by my intellect during the first episode I decided to keep score during the second. I got 23 out of 60 right, not bad. After this endeavor my mind was spent, so I poured some Pinot Noir, watched The Hills and SNL and read Elle Magazine, before snuggling into bed. Tomorrow Michelle is coming for dinner and I am going to break out the Jamon. I am looking forward to it immensely.

The week of “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” has commenced and guess where he stopped first. Buenos Aires Argentina! Matt told us about the city while standing in front of the Obelisk and took us from the Pampas to Patagonia. We need to go back there, rapido. The clue for tomorrow’s destination is this:

“The people in our second destination are accustomed to being looked down on…we’ll let the winds lead us to them…and we should get there on time…unless we stop for the lights.”

I am really not sure, somewhere that people fly over a lot? And definitely on the water. After tearing myself away from Matt and making my way to work I was greeted with some wonderful news. Since one co-worker with a window cube had left, I asked if I could move to it, and our boss said yes! The cube is much larger, the desk is bigger and I’m right next to the window. Supposedly it gets quite cold there in the winter, but I say, vale la pena.

Since my weekends are now Boo-booless I am planning some trips. Next weekend Dana and Melinda come for Goldcup, and the weekend after that Mom decided I should come to Charleston for Genny’s graduation. Then, for Memorial Day Melinda and I are going to have a NYC extravaganza. If the weather is good this will almost solely involve rooftop BBQ’s and tanning in central park (with water-bottles full of mimosas). If the weather is poor we will be cultural and go to museums and movies (with water-bottles full of hot rum toddy’s).

It was Monsoon raining here on and off today, since I left the windows open all day, I feared my apartment may be mildly flooded, but to my delight the only remnant was some water on the windowsill. You can barely see it.

Also, the Jetta, in its sweet parking spot, wanted to say hi. Can you see her? In front of that ugly Honda Element.

After doing some organizing I decided since the rain had stopped it was time for a run. My ass looked really good in my shorts, I had to document.

Post run I made some spaghetti and frozen meatballs from Trader Joes. I was just about to bite into my featst when Katherine called. She had arrived for our Gossip Girl double screening. As I ate and drank some Pinot Noir, Katherine and I watched two episodes of Gossip Girl and one episode of The Hills. All the while finishing the vast majority of the Pinot Noir.

Once Katherine left I began the daunting task of emptying half my closet. Apartment 402’s fan is being whack, and the way to get to it, is through Apartment 404;s closet, ME (that’s what the scary door is in the ceiling). They tried to fix the problem while I was gone, but there were too many clothes in my closet for them to do anything. I needed to empty it out, for their sake (and my designer wardrobes sake) to fix it.

It actually only took 5 minutes, but the pile is killing me. The fan will be fixed in the AM, and in the PM I will use this opportunity to re-color-code my pants as I put them back in. Now it is time to eat a little more Ben and Jerry’s, watch a spot of tellie, and wash the dishes. UGH, there are a lot I wish I had my Marco to help. There are a lot.

This morning I did my usual Birkner Sunday routine, breakfast (oatmeal in Moroccan bowl #2) and SNL. It wasn’t new last night, so I watched one from when I was gone. The highlight was a Top Chef spoof, Padma didn’t have a scar though, I thought it would have been a funny, albeit mean, touch. I also did some laundry, so domestic and efficient. Around noon I met Lindsey for brunch at Open City. The wait was only 30 minutes, a record. I had a chorizo scramble, which was amazing, I just love American brunch food. Sadly, during brunch I missed a call from my boo, and he never called back like he said he might… My heart aches. His head probably aches, from Croatian beer, which he was drinking instead of calling me back.

Once home again it was time for curtain madness. First I assembled the rods.

Then I hung the things, and they were so ugly I wanted to barf, though they did block out the light. As you can see from the dark photo below. They are definitely more meant as a back drape for other curtains, not really stand alone decor. I only had to hang one set to reach the sad conclusion.

It was time to re-assess the situation. After an extensive web search of my other options I took the ugly things down, packed them up and headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to return them. On the way I stopped at a store that shall not be named (you’ll see why in a moment) to purchase some balloon shades. They had just what I wanted and they were still in their shipping package, so what should have been one pack, was actually two. Once at the register I “accidentally” did not point this out, and to my utmost delight, got two for the price of one.

On the way home I also stopped at Teeter to buy some groceries for the week. Nothing too exciting, but strawberries were two for one, just like my balloon shades. American grocery stores are better than ones in Morocco, but Corte has them beat on the Jamon thing. At the checkout I asked for paper to save the planet, and the cashier did the worst bagging job this side of the Mississippi, my bag didn’t even make it out of the store before ripping. Thanks.

To redeem themselves for the bag mishap, the gods of Teeter gave me a SWEET parking spot right outside the apartment, so I didn’t have to carry the groceries Home Alone style (ya know the scene where Kevin’s bag breaks) back to my abode.

Immediately, after putting the Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Buns in the freezer, I began the ballon shade hanging process, they look okay. Honestly I don’t like them much and probably will return them. I think I either need to spend some money on good blinds, or have none at all. They will block out a little light, but probably not enough to make them worthwhile, even at the 2 for 1 price.

After crying about my failed curtain quest and doing some domestic activities I cuddled up with my book. There are 150 pages to go before Tuesday. Finally the apartment has cooled off a bit, but the pollen has come with it, and my allergies are HORRIBLE. I think I would trade them for a week of tagines. On a more happy note, I got a prompt reply from Itunes customer service about the movie I rented for our trip. It was of poor quality and they refunded me and wrote a very nice note. Thanks Apple, for being awesome as usual

I had a little trouble with jet-lag this morning. I woke up at 6am and was finally triumphant in the powder room and then awoke again at 7:30, had to get up and look at curtains on Crate and Barrell and then managed to fall back asleep until 10am, marvelous. My apartment was steamy even with the windows open and an outdoor temp of 66 degrees, WHAT GIVES? I made some coffee and iced it, much needed due to steamy surroundings and ate some amazing Kashi Vive probiotic cereal with yogurt and blueberries in my new Morroccan bowl.

After my morning meal I went to the bank to deposit my checks and get some quarters for the washing machines, as I no longer have the luxury of free washing at 2123 California St NW. After my errands I began to minimize the 70% of used up space on my DVR with an episode of The Office. Hilarity ensued per usual during a dinner party Michael and Jan hosted at their condo.

After this most fulfilling post-writer strike experience I decided to fill my brain with something of a more intellectual genre. I lubed up with SPF 15 and went to the roof of my apartment for the very first time since I’ve moved here to read The Eyre Affair. My roofdeck was actually quite pleasing, with three chaises and a bunch of other chairs. I plopped down in a chaise, angled myself towards the sun, took in the striking DC views (though not as striking as Fes) and read my face off for about two hours.

My book contains many classical literay references which makes the novel very pleasing to a well read white person such as myself. I was quite pleased when the protagonist went to the Chesire Cat Pub and ordered a Vorpal special, after being asked why a raven is like a writing desk. Do you get it? I did.

Clue:

Once I made some substantial headway in the book I decided to go to the new Target extravangaza on Columbia Road. It was time for curtains. I have simply had enough light spilling into my apartment and now that summer is near, so some curtains will also help to keep the heat out. My goal was to spend as little as possible, yet achieve the feat of light blocking. Impossible? Perhaps. So I gathered my coupons and went out into the fray.

After about an hour and a half, which involved a few unrelated purchases of sunscreen, hair elastics, L’Oreal Sublime Bronze and a free tropical smoothie I was about to give up my pursuit when low and behold I discovered Wamsutta Blackout Curtains and spring tension curtain rods (so as to avoid screwing things with tools) at Bed Bath and Beyond. I was able to buy everything at a 20% discount with my coupons, which will please Carole greatly (note: their coupons NEVER expire, one of mine was from December 2007, accepted). The curtains are simple, but hopefully will be astetically pleasing, even if they aren’t custom drapes from Room and Board. Tune in tomorrow for the trials and tribulations that will be their instllation.

Tonight the world is my oyster. I am on my way to MINT. Then, I may continue to read and delve into my DVR or even go out in Georgetown. All the while, thinking of my Boo.

Today I woke up in my steamy studio to the buses rolling by and the birdies singing, but one thing was missing, Marc. To calm the ache in my bosom I immediately turned on the Today Show and made some french vanilla coffee ( I still haven’t tried the Southern Season vanilla). Meredith Viera was talking about Lasik eye surgery, and as I mentioned before, I don’t think I’ll be the best candidate, because my prescription changes often. The most wonderful part of my morning routine was using my Supersolano Hairdryer to make my hair nice and shiny. In Morocco they were non-existent and in Spain the one in Malaga was so subpar I wanted to cry. So you can imagine my satisfaction as I tousled my hair and dried it to perfection.

I took the bus to work which was not as busy as the one in Barcelona and was of course the second person in the office. I checked my mountains of email to find I had not missed much and got back into my regular routine of g-chatting, drinking my coffee and doing some intermittent work. The highlight of my morning was clearly my maple nut oatmeal with frozen blueberries and telling everyone about my trip. Pretty much the whole office had been reading Marc’s blog and those who hadn’t soon got on the train. They can’t wait to see and smell my navy ballet flats.

During lunch I made my way to Clarendon for a visit to Barnes and Noble to purchase The Eyre Affair for book club and visit Whole Foods for some much needed provisions. I bought a chicken caesar wrap, some chicken, asparagus and mushroom salad, milk, fruit and yogurt, totaling about $20. YES I was back in America. Back at work I wolfed down my sandwich and had a somewhat uneventful afternoon in which my seasonal allergies got bad…

After a ride home by a coworker, what a treat, I sat around in my steamy apartment and tried to figure out the best way to cool it down to no avail. I think I have given up. I received my tax returns in the mail which made the heat a little more bearable. After chugging water and eating my whole foods for dinner I began to ready my self for a night on the town with Elise. My new boobie top that I had no chance to wear abroad was out in full force at Local 16.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at Local 16 for once because we scored three seats right at the bar and drank vodka, soda and grapefruit juice cocktails, drinking in the summer-like weather (and our drinks of course). After major girl gossip and 2 more cocktails we decided it was time for some jumboslice, as I needed to be fully re-conditioned to American society. Despues de some artery clogging we made our way to The Reef, where my coworkers were bidding adieu to a fallen comrade who is journeying to another job. I mingled and socialized and Elise and her boyfriend went home. Eventually I made the short walk back though the clogged streets to my apratment. SCORE my house is so close. Once home I opened the windows, turned on the fan to full speed, put on my earplugs and went to bed (only using the sheet, no duvet, obvs) and dreamed of my love across the Atlantic and Adriatic.