So I've been doing more work this week for the company I was working for when we left London and it's going much better than my previous attempts at work. Far less procrastination and associated blueness, which is a relief.
We went to see 'What Happens In Vegas' in Chinatown on Thursday. We were hoping to grab a meal at one of what we assumed would be many chinese restaurants there, but were a little bemused to find that there aren't so many chinese places in Chinatown - mostly lots of chains like Subway and Starbucks with chinese signs.
Turns out 'What Happens In Vegas' could've happily waited till my next trip on a plane,
but it was alright. Cameron Diaz is looking ooooold, in that too-much-booze-not-enough-sunblock way but Ashton Kutcher is kind of astonishingly handsome. I realise I'm coming very late to the party, but seriously, he is hot. Fortunately so is Max, so I wasn't sad to not be taking Ashton home after the movie.
I was a little relieved when criminal lawyer Sarah cancelled our game of tennis yesterday afternoon. It's really hot and I had a much nicer day with our new friends. Max and I met Alison, Emily and Erik Love for lunch because Alison was working at the downtown branch of her company (as opposed to the one way out in Virginia). It was really nice to have a gang of friends to hook up with and we had tasty sushi while planning a strategy to ensure Erik Love came to Alison and Emily's 'seersucker and sundresses' party tonight, despite having a prior engagement.
While the others scuttled back to work, I went for frozen yoghurt with Alison and chatted about the famous Brewster, who she's still going out with since their first date a few weeks ago and who's hardcore, hardcore religious when it comes to dating, which is presenting Alison with some intriguing challenges!
When I got home, Anne popped round to give us a spare key for her and Megan's flat and we got chatting for ages. Then we nipped over to her flat to look at some photos she was talking about, then she came back over to ours and we sat chatting and chatting over cans of Dr Pepper. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon!
Anne is really great. We have crazily similar personalities and freaked each other out on several occasions yesterday, talking about things we've done or how we feel about stuff and realising we are exactly the same. It's lovely for me, because we've kind of skipped the first few stages of getting-to-know-you friendship and seem to have jumped straight to a strong bond that enables to lots of long chats about things you rarely discuss with anyone other than your closest friends. The divviest similarity is that we're already getting sad about not living across the hall from each other, despite that being a long 10 months away!
Today was a classic Saturday in DevoLand. We mooched around this morning reading magazines, watched a bit of 'The West Wing', then did some chores and made cookies for Alison and Emily's party tonight (another baking disaster. I blame it on the Australian cookbook I was using that called for vegetable oil rather than butter. In COOKIES).
It started tipping it down with rain as we made our way to a mediterranean restaurant for dinner with friends of my friend Annabel. We saw our first ever motorcade on our way - it was enormous. There were 8 motorbikes, many black cars with blacked-out windows, an ambulance, lots of police cars and a jeep carrying men in black with big machine guns, looking mean.
I doubt they had the difficulties we did when we got to Dupont Circle and found it jammed with people lining the streets for Gay Pride, which we'd completely forgotten was happening today. Slipping and sliding in our flipflops in the torrential rain, we had to play chicken with a big truck carrying a drag queen as we dashed across the road to the restaurant.
Annabel's friends Neil and Val were really nice. Neil is British and Val is his American wife and they have two children and live in the Virginia suburbs. We had a really nice meal, though our waitress seemed a little annoyed to be serving us. Neil, Val and their kids have just come back from Alaska, which sounds terrific. I only wish we'd got them to take a photo of a numberplate while they were there - I can't imagine how else we're going to complete our collection!
After dinner, we headed to Alison and Emily's sundresses and seersucker party, which was a kind of odd affair. All the lights were on in their flat, there was no music and everyone was just kind of sitting around very politely. I worry that my interpretive dancing at our dimly-lit housewarming party must have shocked our American guests, if Alison and Emily's party is typical of DC fiestas.
I'm still not drinking and the lack of atmosphere didn't really help fill the gap in getting me into the party mood. Max held court very successfully in the kitchen all night, which was funny to occasionally pop in and see. It's fun being the celebrity guests here, with the unusual accents.
I met a nice girl from Alison and Emily's church called Becky who put my entire life to shame. She works with babies and toddlers at the world's only deaf university here in DC. She taught me how to sign 'you look nice' to Max (which he did), but he unfortunately thought I was trying to tell him he had dandruff when I tested my new skills. Whoops. Anyway, when Becky isn't helping deaf babies and their families, she spends her summers working at an orphanage in Nairobi. Yeah, I really need to get on with that whole plan of spending time here volunteering...
Erik Love never did make it to the party, which was a crying shame, and Patrick and Leanna didn't come, either. So I had a load of conversations with people I wasn't that interested in speaking to (while marveling at fake-Gavin's entirely seersucker suit) and trying to perfect my exit strategy for such situations.
I did enjoy meeting the famed Brewster, who seems really Nice (note capital N). He looks quite a lot like a Richie Cunningham-era Ron Howard and just seems a thoroughly good chap, if not necessarily one to set the world alight. He took an instant liking to Max when Maxy referenced 'Chariots of Fire' while taunting Emily about working on Sundays. The reference was lost on a mildly offended Emily, but Brewster was in ecstasy, as it's his favourite movie ever and he behaved like it was the tiniest, most obscure film that no-one else has seen. I think he'll be Max's friend for life now.
I was very ready to leave when Max left his kitchen audience begging for more. As we were going, so were Alison's Russian friends who've just moved here from San Francisco. Max had had great football chats with Dimitri who has a funny face - like a cartoon Russian drunk man - and seems very fun. His wife, Inna, is whippet thin and I can't imagine where she fit a child, but sure enough they have a little boy called Kai who was sleeping upstairs through the party and looked sooooo sweet, wrapped around Dimitri when they left. I demand to babysit, which I gather would be quite welcome, as Inna's mother only lived a couple of blocks away in SF and they're feeling a little stranded here in DC.
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