East Coast Tour

I know that I talk a big game. Some of you may have heard me make grand claims:
- I don't believe in getting sick
- I NEVER sleep
- I never get cold

Well, the first two are *definitely* true. The third one was true until yesterday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you all already know that the east coast gets cold. Earth to readers, I knew this, too. But oh my goodness, when it's 19 degrees out and then an icy wind blows all through your clothes. DAAAAAAMMMMMN!

Anyway, you read my not-so-harrowing adventures that led me to buy a new iPhone, but that was just part of the story. I flew into DC on Wednesday morning after taking the red eye from Oakland on JetBlue. There were less than 60 people on my flight which meant that I had three seats to stretch out across. When's the last time you got to do that?

Upon landing, I picked up my baggage and then the rental car (different uses of "picked up") and drove to Seth and Karen's place in Silver Springs. Seth and I were roommates in college for three years, including one year where we decided to situate our two room double by putting both beds in the "inner sanctum" and both desks in the "outer study room". Suffice to say, the Inner Sanctum saw absolutely ZERO action sophomore year. Since Seth was working from home in the morning, we chatted a bit and then I took a nap and he went to work.

Later in the day, I ventured into DC and met up with Rebekah (friend from high school) in Adams Morgan at Cashion's Eat Place. We went back to her place to watch the State of the Union address. Strangely, I hadn't watched it at all during the Bush years. It was actually pretty cool watching the speech in DC, but more on the speech in a future post.

Thursday was lunch with Tim (former advisee) and all sorts of shenanigans around the town. Following that (and the new phone), I met up with Irena, Sharon, Dan, Alexis, and Ben for dinner at Oya. It was a loud restaurant, but was a great call by Irena. Their food was quite good and fusiony - I had a Tuna Tempura roll that was phenomenal. And the drinks were good - I had a Darker and Stormier and a Manhattan that were both good. The company was even better!

Friday was spent relaxing and then exploring a bit of the city. I went to Tryst for lunch and Chai Masala Tea. Lunch was a sandwich with turkey, sundried tomato spread, and brie on a toasted olive focaccia roll. I headed to Metro Center and then FINALLY made it to Starbucks (where I had tried to go the previous day). Sima (former advisee) and I caught up for a bit and then she had to go back to work. What's this about people with jobs?

After a brief visit to Kramerbooks and Afterwords, I headed back to Silver Springs to have dinner with Nicole, Gino, and their son Nico. Nicole and I went to junior high and high school together and actually lived like two blocks away from each other in Burlingame. As a brief aside - one of my favorite stories about Nicole was from Mr. Perry's Algebra 3-4 class my sophomore (her junior) year. I'm sitting in the class, a little intimidated and she sits right in front of me, turns around and says, "You're smart. I'm going to sit near you." Anyway, I hadn't seen talked to them in over a year, so we caught up for about four and a half hours and also got to be entertained by Nico. By the way, Gino has motorcycle boots that make him look like Jetfire.

Saturday was spent sitting inside with Seth, Karen, and Julia admiring the snow through thick-paned windows. Actually, Saturday was a pretty momentous day for the Yoskowitz family - Julia had her first non-crib day that day AND she also managed to go potty a couple times in the toilet and not in her diaper. Uncle Josh may have accidentally taught her to lick her own toes, though. I guess that deserves its own paragraph...

So Seth, Julia, and I were all playing and at one point Julia said something that sounded like, "I'm going to lick my toes now." Now me, being less-than-fully experienced with kids SHOULD have said, "What did you say?" Instead, like an idiot, I said, "Did you just say that you were going to lick your toes?" I could see the lightbulb go off in her head. IMMEDIATELY, she started taking off her sock and stuck her left foot in her mouth. Seth and I, laughing, tried to get her to stop. Seth picked her up (upside down) to try to distract her...to no avail. I also tried the same thing and the moment I put her down, she went right back to the toe-licking. This is my fault. I'm sorry.

No really, I'd be a great baby-sitter to your kids.

Anyway, with it snowing all day yesterday, I decided to wait until today (Sunday) to drive to Philadelphia. But this post is long enough. I'll regale you with toes tales later.