What's up? Nothing

Don't you love these two-toned leather pants? I found them at Goodwill but I don't have occasions to wear such vintage '80s finery so I had to capture the dressing room mirror-reflected moment on the trusty cameraphone. Are you getting sick of my crappy cell-phone pictures?

Nothing exciting is happening in my life right now.

I think I'm in one of those overwhelmed stages. It's been raining off and on. Yesterday I was sunbathing at Lake Anna and today I am wearing a sweater. Ah, spring.

Last night we went to a DC Divas football game -- all women, full-contact fb.
They are for real. This was Neil's dream come true; he's been wanting to go for years. That and the Mystics, the DC women's pro basketball team. Don't ask.

George, a kid Neil mentors, came along.
The Divas beat the Baltimore Nighthawks into the ground, 35-6, if you were wondering. Would you expect less from a diva with a capital D?

We found a very large piece of pizza in Adams Morgan. It was as big as both of us, and despite the impression given below, I single-handedly ate it, crust and all.
And that's about as exciting as my life gets right now.

More Old News

At work and remembered this lovely tidbit of news from last week:
"(Detroit) Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, right, and Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams react to City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr.'s message that the council would not hear the mayor's budget address. Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins wears a tiara to celebrate her 69th birthday." (Detroit Free Press)

Wow.

Said tiara is just the latest in this embarrassing story.

Old News

By now this is old news, but oh well.

Last Friday, the Newseum opened on Pennsylvania Ave. They had a grand opening celebration, and I was SO stoked. Rosemay, her baby, Josiah and I went.

It was pretty awesome. As we drove up, we saw all the fanfare: Tons of people (in line), confetti everywhere, news crews and limos. A huge banner of a newspaper front page was draped down the front of the building.


There was a lot of energy in the air and it was pretty exciting. It was also a gloriously sunny, beautiful day. According to weather.com, it got up to 82 degrees.

We saw some guy in white chef's clothes being interviewed by a TV reporter -- it was Wolfgang Puck! He was on hand to open his restaurant in the Newseum.

Here's a view from the balcony on the building's 7th floor, looking down:

My first thought was: "Someone's definitely going to jump from here one day."

Looking out, there's the Capitol. I don't think the Newseum folks are done constructing the balcony, hence the cones and tape. That, or someone jumped.


Highlight of the trip: I got to be a TV reporter. It's clear I'm a much better journalist from a desk than from in front of a camera.


My advice: Don't read too quickly from the teleprompter.
Check my broadcast.


The Newseum itself is pretty cool, I definitely recommend it. One display wraps around the front of the building with glass cases containing the day's front pages of newspapers from all over the country (and a local one, too).


Inside the building is another display with national and international front pages.


I'm wondering whose job it is to print those out and put them in the cases every day -- quite a tedious job, I would think! But it looks cool. A couple of interest to me -- Gannett (the company I work for) newspapers in places I've lived (in the case of AZ, a place I want to live):








The 9/11 exhibit is quite moving. There is an amazing collection from a photojournalist who was actually crushed when the buildings fell. His camera and digital images were retrieved and are part of a slide show with interviews from his wife. A lot of the images contain rescue workers, and you know they all died, too. It's quite haunting -- the last image is time-stamped the exact minute the tower fell.
A wall of 9/12 front pages from around the world:


This one, from the San Francisco Examiner, stuck out:

I think the headline is in poor taste and is unprofessional. But that's just me.

The rest of last weekend was spent enjoying the weather, taking ballet (me) and breakdancing (him), driving around, going to our friends' show at the NASA center in MD. Odd venue, but cool. They were celebrating as part of a worldwide party on the anniversary of the first person in space. The center (NASA, not the center of the universe) is actually blocks from where I lived from 1987-90, so we drove by my old house. Weird!

Saturday day:
Neil doesn't like to smile.

In fact, he often thinks he's too cool for my cameraphone.


Speaking of cameraphone, here's one from a couple weeks ago when my friend, Aly, was in town from GA and we went to see the cherry blossoms! The big pencil is reflected beside a bough reaching for the water. Nice composition, in my limited and biased opinion.

Things You Notice Once You're Married

The most delightful surprise: Neil hums and sings under his breath. All the time. In the kitchen. In the bathroom. While ironing. In the hall outside our apt. (I always know it's him before he even gets to the door). It's so cute. Maybe it's one of those thing that, after years and years, will get on my nerves. But I doubt it. It's such a happy sound. I worry more that, after years and years, I will have beat down his spirit (kids could accelerate this process) to the point that he stops humming and singing. Then I'd feel really bad and sad, too. So here's to a joyful sound that I hope continues forever!