Perfect weekend

There will be a special place in hell reserved for people who schedule moves away from DC during the springtime.

[Er . . .  hold on . . . I'm the one who scheduled this move.  Let's start again.]

Whoever invented DC in the springtime deserves an award.  Like, an Oscar for "best pairing of city and season" or something.  Because once the dreary cold and grey of winter finally breaks, this place rocks.  The air is cool, the sun goldenly warm, and literally everywhere you look there are banks and pillows and clouds of springtime blossoms.  People cheerfully abandon their apartments and houses to run and bike and stroll and simply be outdoors.

That's what it was like here this weekend.  And because I only have two days left at the firm, I didn't need to work!  Instead, I had about as perfect a spring weekend as I could hope for:

I got up first thing and met the Bishop for an early morning bike ride.  It was my first time out since the winter, and boy did it feel good!

We didn't go all that far (only 30 miles) or all that fast (we averaged only 14 mph) but speed and distance weren't the point of the ride -- we wanted to see the cherry blossoms.  With our long, nasty winter, the cherry blossoms had been delayed by at least a week from their originally predicted peak (sorry Vanessa!).  But this week the temperatures finally broke into the 70s and the trees virtually exploded into full bloom just in time for the weekend.

The greatest concentration of cherry trees in DC is around the tidal basin and neighboring Hains Point.  Given the massive blossom-peeping crowds on the sidewalks, and the equally gridlocked traffic, we cyclists were perfectly situated to thread our way to the most scenic spots.

After the ride, I came home and planned to spend most of the day going through closets in preparation for the move.  But then Jeff came over and we had lunch at the German bakery (I am so going to miss those fresh-grilled bauernwursts!) and then stopped over at the bike shop and provided moral support as he picked out a new bike (shopping with someone else's money is always fun; and knowing you're about to move cross-country is a good way to keep from spending your own).  Shortly after Jeff left with his new toys, Amy arrived to check out some of the furniture I'm hoping to sell before we both drove into town for a barbecue at a fellow law school classmate's house on Capitol Hill.  This classmate and her husband were celebrating their birthdays -- and, it turns out, their two-day-old engagement! -- with barbecue pork, wings and other delicious picnicky items.  The food was great and for some reason nearly everyone there had some connection to Seattle, so I came away with names of people I should contact and assurances that I would like my soon-to-be home.

The good weather continued this morning.  I played hookie from church so that I could go to one last yoga class with my favorite teacher (I didn't want her to think I'd abandon her for anything less than moving to another state!) and then drove downtown to meet Jean for brunch at Founding Farmers.

Jean was one of the original Kennedy Center dream team, and we've kept in touch ever
since.  She looked beautiful in her "Amelie" dress and pumps!

I got a sausage, mushroom and spinach "scramble"
with one pancake on the side.

I was tempted to spend the rest of the post-brunch afternoon on the back of my bike -- or napping in a pool of sunshine -- but instead summoned enough sense of responsibility to tackle some of my moving-related "to dos".  I went through my closet and cupboards, throwing out trash and building my pile of things to take to Goodwill.  In the early evening Mark came to pick up my big area rug, which I decided to sell rather than schlep to Seattle with me.  (My original plan had been to sell all my furniture and then just buy everything new when I buy a place to live in Seattle.  But once I'd decided to rent for a while before buying real estate, it seemed prudent to keep at least the key pieces of furniture and avoid urban camping.)

The room feels so much smaller without the rug!  The navy blue and the giant chain
pattern really gave the room energy and made it feel bigger.

After Mark left with the rug, I got dinner from Cafe Rio and headed home to eat the spicy enchiladas and watch a few back episodes of my favorite TV shows.  As I drove through the pinky sunset, I couldn't help but feel a swell of happiness and nostalgia.  A weekend like this -- filled with warm days, good friends, delicious food, beautiful nature, and above all a sense of connectedness and home -- is representative of so much of what I have loved about this city since I first moved here nearly ten years ago.  Boy, I'm going to miss springtime in DC.