LADY OF LEISURE

MOST ABSURD SOURCE OF EXCITEMENT THIS WEEK: my gym locker - it opens just like ones at high schools in movies

This is the life! Now all my work is out of the way and we've made some excellent new friends, I'm much happier and relishing my freedom more than before I was stuck in the house all day, hitting my head against the wall trying to get work done.

Monday was particularly exciting, as Patrick got in touch about softball, properly inviting me to join his team every Tuesday (which is especially handy, as that's the night Maxy often works late, covering the primaries). On closer inspection, it would appear that softball is nothing like rounders - they wear gloves, for a start - but fortunately last night's game was cancelled due to a soggy pitch from Monday's torrential rain. Bunch of lame-os, wearing gloves to catch a hard ball (cricket, anyone?!) and cancelling at the tiniest drop of rain - if British sport stopped for a bit of rain, we'd never get anywhere! Oh... Still, I'm really excited about playing in the shadow of the Washington monument and look forward to next week, by which time I should be up to speed on the rules.

Buoyed by my burgeoning softball career, I decided to look into playing tennis here, too and found this website which puts people in touch with tennis players of similar ability to them in the DC area. I've already contacted and heard back from about four people and lined up a couple of games, so am really looking forward to that. No gloves required there, and potentially some more new friends - woo!

This sporting frenzy went to my head and I had great plans to go to boxing class on Monday night, but never quite made it. I did however go to pilates on Wednesday, but it was a really rubbish class, so I won't be going again. I need to find me a good one to go to, especially with all this eating out we're doing. Bleurgh.

Alison invited me to drinks with 'the girls' tomorrow night, which is lovely, but Max and I will be on our way to his birthday surprise, so I can't make it. When I suggested meeting up next weekend, she explained that she's off to a beach house in North Carolina as it's a bank holiday weekend. I jokingly said, 'take us with you!', just by way of saying it'll be sad not to see her for two weeks, but she took me seriously and invited us! It would be pretty cool. But it would also involve Max taking a second Friday in a row off work and we're trying to save up his holiday for a mammoth roadtrip at the end of our stay, so we're staying here for the bank holiday weekend. But it was so nice of Alison to offer.

I love having the days back to myself again and yesterday I got to spend the morning with Maxy, as he was covering the primaries last night so didn't go into the office until later. It was a gorgeous day, so we went on a tour around DC on a topless bus. Unfortunately we had a nightmare finding the spot where the buses leave from (how do hapless tourists manage it?! We finally found the bus stop, which was in a multi-storey car park...) and then the tour itself ended up being something of a bust. It was really boring and the tour was conducted by a recorded guide, so we kept missing things as it was out of sync with the progress of the bus. So that's one thing Philadelphia has over DC - its bus tours are better.

But we saw Embassy Row, which was pretty cool - it's just a huge long road lined with embassies, many of which look like buildings from their own country, which is funny. The Mexican one looks a lot like a hacienda and the Swedish one is all cool and angular. We also saw the FBI, Arlington Cemetery and the cathedral, which was beautiful and very European.

I've had a lovely day today, just pootling about on my bike and running errands. I made yet another friend today, while in line at the metro. Well, I wouldn't call him a friend because I don't imagine I'll see him again, but he was a very friendly middle-aged man who gave me his card and invited Max and me out to the suburbs, if we ever wanted to see that side of DC life, so that was nice. (although, written like that, looks a little like an invitation to a swingers' circle...)

Tonight Max and I discovered an awesome roof terrace restaurant just down the road, with the floating chandeliers I was so fond of at the 18th St Lounge when we first got here. I chose to leave my bag at home, figuring that Max had keys and a wallet, but this unfortunately meant that I had no ID on me, so wasn't allowed to drink. They're hilariously hardcore about IDing everyone here. But it's not that hilarious.

While I was waiting for Max to arrive, I was watching a tango lesson going on inside, which looked great. A lady waiting for her dance partner told me that there are lots of places like that dotted around DC, which will have a dance class in the early evening, then for the rest of the night it becomes a club that plays that particular type of music, so you can try out your new moves. Sounds cool.

Hey, and Max was hero of the hour at work today, though frustratingly no-one seems inclined to acknowledge this. At 1pm, Obama's press office told them that they would be announcing a 'major endorsement' at 7pm tonight. Max checked his most reliable blogs (erm, not this one) and found one with a picture of John Edwards and the cryptic strapline, 'ready to choose?'. So Max announced that he reckoned the endorsement would come from Edwards, which gave everyone time to prepare footage and quotes and stuff so that when indeed it was Edwards they announced at 7pm, the BBC had had about 6 hours lead time on the story, courtesy of Max! Clever man. I just wish there was a little more back-slapping in News, so Max could feel appreciated.

Still, no fear of him feeling unappreciated tomorrow - we're off on his birthday surprise extravaganza! Woo!