Weekend Report: Boy Bands and Pitch Perfect and Himalayan Food

Oh this weekend. I’m not entirely sure where it went, and yet I’m sad it’s gone.

Friday night I was looking forward to a dance party at the 930 Club: Lady Gaga v. Madonna v. Boy Bands. Clearly I was there for the boy bands and when it started with Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) I was just as excited as any self-respecting fan-girl would be.

The ever-important question: Which one is your favorite???

Unfortunately the venue got really crowed really quickly, so I can’t give the evening a full two thumbs up. Also, apparently the DJ’s definition of boy bands is more broad than mine -- really I just wanted her to play N’Sync and Backstreet Boys’ first couple CDs (or tapes, as it were...oh 1996), and maybe some 98 Degrees thrown in there for good measure. (So my ideal Friday night is a 6th grade dance? Maybe.) Any so-called “boy bands” before or after that are beyond my scope of silly music knowledge.

[Sidenote: My elementary school was really small and didn’t have a gym, so when it was raining out, we had “indoor recess.” In 5th and 6th grade that meant that all the cool kids played our favorite CDs (the aforementioned boy bands, Spice Girls, Aqua, etc…oh dear) on the classroom boom box and knew all the dances. Our teachers must have thought we were insane. Please tell me you did this too?]

Woah big news: some preliminary googling tells me that
98 Degrees is reuniting and going on tour!

Just to brighten your Monday, go ahead and listen to all these songs and try not to dance at your desk.

Saturday I baked a cake (recipe to come), to bring to a Pitch Perfect viewing party. The movie is like a cross between Bring it On, Mean Girls, and Bridesmaids, i.e. hilarious. Rebel Wilson is SO funny.


My Sunday was pretty lazy. I went for a long run in the pool (2 HOURS, aka omg kill us all now), and then lounged on the couch watching Nashville and some football (Redskins fans, I'm sorry for your loss) until dinnertime.

Dinner was a “Global Dinner.” As you probably know/assume, I’m an adventurous eater and have tried almost every cuisine DC has to offer. Therefore I’m always shocked (shocked!) when I learn that not everyone does this. Way back in August, my coworker/climbing friend invited me to Ethiopian food with a group of her friends, because they’d never had it before, which is a travesty that needed fixing asap. At that first dinner it soon became clear that most of them wanted to expand their culinary horizons, but were not entirely confident in doing so; therefore we decided to meet for regular food adventures.

So anywho, this is a long way to explain that I went to Himalayan last night and it was delicious, obviously.  Indian is in my top-3 cuisines (Mexican, Indian, Mediterranean), and Himalayan food is pretty much Indian with some Nepalese mixed in.  The food wasn’t as spicy as I expected(/hoped) but it was very good. And the naan – OOH THE NAAN. I love naan.

We ordered pretty safely/conservatively -- I split palak paneer (spinach and cheese – my go-to), chicken curry, and Chicken Biryani (Indian fried rice). The nice thing about Himalayan Heritage is that naan comes with the entrees. Yummmm. We didn't order momos (dumplings), but awww momos remind me of my trip to Manali, India!

And that is that. Hope you had a good weekend too, and happy Monday!

Weekend Report: Hipster Dance Party

Hipsters are hard to define.


Urban Dictionary says, “Hipsters are a subculture of men and women typically in their 20's and 30's that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter.”


Wikipedia tells me “Hipster culture has been described as a ‘mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior[s].’ Christian Lorentzen of Time Out New York argues that ‘hipsterism fetishizes the authentic’ elements of all of the ‘fringe movements of the postwar era— beat, hippie, punk, and even grunge’ and draws on the ‘cultural stores of every unmelted ethnicity,’ and ‘regurgitates it with a winking inauthenticity.’”


And there is, of course, the site "Look at this f****** hipster" if you need visuals. 


Those definitions sound very complex. All I know is that much like pornography and obscenity, hipsters fall into the category of you know one when you see one.  


And the dance party I went to on Saturday night was a lot of knowing it when I saw it. DC may not be Chicago or San Francisco or New York or Brooklyn, but it does have a pretty significant population of the skinny-jeans-clad, dark-rimmed-glasses-wearing, messenger-bag-carrying, PBR-drinking hipster types. 

Fatback is a monthly DJ’d party off of U Street with a mix of boogaloo, funk, soul and R&B music. It was kind of a cultural experience – everywhere you looked there were plaid shirts and fake mustaches. I’ve been to Fatback once before, but this weekend was their 4-year anniversary, so it was an even bigger deal. Oh don’t worry, there’s video online (just to be clear: I am NOT in this video). 


I won’t be calling myself a hipster any time soon (or ever), but I’ll probably return to Fatback. 


In other weekend news, SpeedyKate and I did an epic 2-hour pool run on Saturday, and on Sunday I trekked deep into the depths of Maryland (and by trekked, I mean took a bus) to visit my refugees and practice English. Good times were had by all and I was reminded, yet again, that I am terrible at middle school math. Does anyone remember how to do a box-and-whiskers graph? Because I don't...

Weekend Report: Trey McIntyre Project and a trip to Rehoboth Beach

Saturday night, LLC and I saw the Trey McIntyre Project, an impressive modern dance group. They’re based in Boise, but the choreography is inspired by New Orleans culture. A-freaking-mazing. These dancers can move! The performance was in three separate pieces.

The first, “Ma Maison,” featured dancers in skeleton costumes (not in a creepy way) and was inspired by traditional New Orleans funerals (imagine a combination of Day of the Dead and Mardi Gras, all set to jazz music). According to the Post, the performance “unleashes the raucous celebration of the jazz funeral, the Cajun acceptance of ghosts, the fearlessness of a population that has experienced hurricanes and hardship since its very beginnings — and all of this unspools to very hot music.”

Part 2, “The Sweeter End,” was grittier with more acrobatic moves.

My favorite was Part 3, “In Dreams.” It’s about Tennessee, “a work of intense vulnerability and pain made visible.”

The music is awesome, the dancers are amazing – if you ever have a chance to see anything by the Trey McIntyre Project do it! (Go here for a tour schedule.)

Then early Sunday morning my co-volunteer and I rented a car, made a picnic, and took our refugees to Rehoboth Beach. (In case you're confused, I do refugee assistance volunteering.)

It was quite the day. We picked them up at 8:30am, crammed all 8 of us into a minivan, and started driving. Rehoboth Beach, DE is a little over 2 hours from their apartment in Maryland. Unlike the redneck beach Ex-Co-Worker Megan and I ventured to last summer, this was the for-serious real thing! Ocean, waves, sand, and boardwalk. Picnic sandwiches, ice cold salt water, sand in your hair, sea-smelling air in your face.

I was a little concerned as we planned the trip…I didn’t know if the family (who are originally from the Congo) would take to the whole beach concept. Well, it turns out I had nothing to worry about – they loved it. They are from Great Lakes region of East Africa, so the beach made them feel like home.

On the drive they saw their first cows, and were in awe of the Maryland Bay Bridge (I was too - did you know there’s a huge bridge in the middle of the state???). Once we arrived they learned that the ocean is salty, and that Merry-Go-Rounds are fun.

Despite the partly cloudy weather, the kids splashed in the ocean and built sand castles. And of course took enough super-model-on-the-beach photos to stock an album (they love taking pictures of themselves).

We left the beach completely exhausted and happy. It sounded daunting, but Rehoboth is a totally do-able day trip from DC. And definitely worth it! 

The Weekend Report: Ballet and the Natural History Museum

Saturday afternoon I saw American Ballet's The Bright Stream at the Kennedy Center. It was soooo good! I do love ballet, but this performance would be good for anyone who enjoys any kind of dance.

The music was fantastic, so lively and up-beat. The plot is a bit Shakespeare-ish, complete with cross-dressing and mistaken identities. They were the happiest Soviet-era Russians I think I've ever seen. (The ballet was banned in Russia because it was suspected to be poking fun at farm workers, rather than giving them the respect they deserved.) The Bright Stream is tagged as a “comic ballet” and it really was laugh-out-loud funny! Read more about it here. 

On Sunday I took my refugees to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Nothing says fun “American” experience like looking at stuffed dead animals, right? But seriously, they loved it. They were amazed by the ocean exhibit – looking at the giant squid, they pointed in awe, It is real????

Yes, I confirmed. In the ocean. Very deep water.

The family has never seen the ocean.

Next we hit up the Mammal Hall. They recognized all the standards: lion, giraffe, zebra, and were really excited to see an antelope-ish thing with a zebra-striped butt.

Okapi! Okapi! Swahili is Okapi, what is it in English please?

I looked at the placard. Um, it’s an Okapi. Same.

Wow! Swahili, English, same? Wooowwww.

Clearly they’ve seen this animal before, despite the fact that the placard also informed me that they are extremely rare and officially “threatened.” So that’s kinda cool.

Things got really confusing as we made our way through the dinosaur fossils. First I explained, No, they’re not dragons. They’re dinosaurs. Then Leyla (the mom) saw the huge diplodocus and then turned to me, a look of wide-eyed concerned confusion on her face. She pointed, It’s big! In USA?

And then it occurred to me – dinosaurs were almost definitely not a part of the curriculum in the Tanzanian refugee camp. They have no idea what they’re looking at. So I launched into my best beginning-English explanation. They lived a very long time ago. One hundred forty million years (as I pointed to the writing on the display), all gone now. All dead. Scientists dig up the bones and put them together, so we know they lived. But not any more.

Oh dear. I hope they learned something.

Weekend Report: Harper's Ferry Hike

Sorry for the no-post-Friday! My mama called me on Saturday to check in: 

Mollie, you didn’t blog on Friday!?!?

Me: Yeah, I just wasn’t feeling creative.

Mama: Ok, well that’s ok then. I was just making sure you hadn’t totally lost it and gone off the deep end.

My mama’s worried that I’m on the verge of "going off the deep end"…so there’s that.

Anywho, this Saturday I took advantage of the lovely fall weather and went hiking at Harper’s Ferry. It’s about a 2-hour drive from DC, but totally worth it. The hike itself was on the short side (just 5 miles total), but it was hilly. As in, the first 2.5 miles were so steep that I found myself using the “Rocky Mountain Rock Step” I learned as a camp counselor!

I snapped some pictures of the LOTR-style forests (can you picture Elves and Orcs engaging in an epic battle here?). 

Harper's Ferry was actually a major Civil War battle site, and came complete with costumed historical re-enactors.

We ate lunch sitting on the old fort ruins atop the highest point, overlooking the Potomac River. 

And then we hiked down to an even better lookout point. Get this: to the left is Maryland, in front is West Virginia, and we are sitting in Virginia!!! Three states at once = win! (I'm from a place where the closest state boarder is 3.5 hours away.) 

The town of Harper’s Ferry is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers (Shenandoah to the left, Potomac to the right). I find myself with John Denver (again): Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River…

Post-hike I carried on the fall spirit by indulging in some pumpkin frozen custard – it was delicious! Frozen custard is like soft serve ice cream, but somehow thicker and richer. Mmmmm!

After a long day, I felt abnormally ambitious Saturday night and decided to honor my promise to “be fun” at least one night of the weekend. I went out dancing at Café Citron, a salsa club near Dupont Circle (and yes, per usual proximity to my bed was a major factor in my agreeing to go out). It was fun, but after a couple hours of fending off over-ambitious dance partners I was ready to call it a night.

Sunday was cold and lazy and wonderful – farmer's market and Americanos and yoga and chili - I am loving this rain!

A Week in the Life of Mollie

Unfortunately I do not have a book for you today. I’m currently reading The Master and Margarita, but I’m not ready to post about it yet…so if you’re feeling overdue for a Literary Bite…I was recently reminded of Peace Like A River (thanks to my Book Trivia Flip Calendar). 

That book was so good! Read my review here.

Instead of books, I’m going to blog about my go-to fall-back subject. Myself. (Sorry. Or you’re welcome?)

You all know that I love my weekends, but I want you to know that there is more to my life than eating, running, and reading. Much more. Sometimes too much more! Maybe I’m spreading myself too thin (haha, peanut butter metaphor – love it!), but I really like everything I do and I don’t know what I could/would eliminate. 

So here it is – you be the judge – A Week in the Life of Mollie:

Monday:

6-8am – Yoga.

8-9:20am - House Job frantic work catch-up (I’m kind of my own supervisor on this one, so though I don’t usually procrastinate, sometimes things pile up…).

9:30-5:50 – Work (my “real” job).

5:50-9:20 - I leave work a little bit early on Mondays so that I can catch the Red Line to the Green Line to the F4 bus to get to 64^th Avenue in Riverdale MD. This process takes about an hour and involves way too many people and forms of transportation!

My ultimate destination is the apartment of my refugees. Leyla (30), Hassan (20), Mustafa (20), Neema (15), Husna (11), and Saiha (9) are “my” family of Congolese refugees. They are fantastic! So sweet and enthusiastic – I just love them! I do Refugee Assistance Volunteering, so I’m teaching them English, and helping them with anything they need (i.e. helping get the kids enrolled in school, filling out government forms, teaching them how to use busses to get places, etc.). I’ve never volunteered before, or taught English, and I find it so rewarding! (If you’re interested, check out more info about the program here.)

I can only spend an hour with them, because by 8:09 I need to get on the bus and repeat in reverse my transportation hell. (This week it took 1 ½ hours to get back to Dupont! Me calling my mama: Mooommmmmm I’m never going to get home! The metro is never going to come! Mama: Mollie, get a grip. Where are you and what are you talking about?)

9:30-10:15 – So you know that I do yoga regularly. The reason I can afford this is because I am a "Karma-Yogi." This means that I clean the yoga studio once a week in exchange for 2 free classes a week. It’s a pretty sweet deal, except that after an already 15-hour day when I haven’t eaten since lunch the last thing I want to do is mop floors in a 100+ degrees yoga studio.

10:20 – bedtime - Shower, bowl-o-food on my couch, LOTR, read, go to sleep. Ugh - Mondays are sooo long!

Tuesday:

I rewarded myself for such a long Monday by sleeping in until 8:30. Yay!

9:30-6 – Work.

6-9 – Track practice. I change at work and take the metro to Ballston, and we work out at the Washington Lee High School Track. SpeedyKate usually drive me home (LOVE anyone/everyone who drives me places!).

9-bedtime – Shower, make/eat dinner, LOTR, read, go to sleep.

Wednesday:

6-8 am – Yoga. Ugh – that one was a struggle! Just 9 short hours after finishing the workout and I’m back at it – dripping sweat as I so often am…

9:30-6 – Work.

6-8:30 – I planned on running…but I just couldn’t do it. As I walked home from work, feeling the humidity and seeing the Dupont thermometer register 105* (which was definitely an exaggeration, but still!), I made the executive decision to nap instead. So I power-napped, did laundry, and made/ate dinner.

8:30-midnight – I met friends for Live Reggae Night at 18^th Street Lounge. I loved it! Live music is always fun – you know I’m an enthusiastic dancer – and when I’m just feet away from a trumpet, sax, trombone, and bongo drums you know it’s a good time! This place is great – they have free pita and hummus at happy hour, and there’s no cover until 10pm. 

Midnight-1am – I got home, showered, and should have gone straight to bed. But I got side-tracked by cookies and The Return of the King…so I didn’t go to bed until 1. Poor choice.

Thursday:

6:50 – The extreme poorness of my choice was reinforced when my alarm went off at 6:50am to meet 6x6 for a run. Kill me.

9 am – Work. I’m leaving work early today to catch a bus to Philly to do Something Awful. The good news is that it involves Jess. The bad news is that it also involves 8.4 miles. And 9.2 miles. All in one day. In New Jersey. Again, kill me. Obviously you will get all the details on that later!

So there you have it. Almost a whole week in my life. And that is why I'm tired!

The Weekend Report: I Just Wanna Dance

I love to dance. Going out to bars is pretty meh. But going out dancing – that’s another thing entirely!

Now, I’m not saying that I’m good at dancing by any means. The adjective I ascribe to my dance style is enthusiasm. Yes that’s right, I dance with enthusiasm. It’s not cool, it’s not classy, it’s not sexy. I don't have any "skills." It’s often just straight-up ridiculous. But I have fun with it, and if I’m ridiculous and don’t care, I think the people around me tend to feel the same way. (Everyone knows, but nobody really likes, the super-serious-face dancer.)

Because dancing, when you think about it, is an absurd activity. You go to an overcrowded location with a few people you know and a ton of people you don’t know, and wiggle your body until you can’t anymore. I mean, that’s just silly. But every culture has some kind of dance...so it must be essential on some very basic level.

And I think most people can agree that dancing is totally awesome! You wouldn’t dance at work, you wouldn’t dance walking down the street, most people wouldn’t dance in public at all, except for those occasions when you go out dancing – then it’s totally legit and anything goes!

And I also have this theory that dancing is good for running.

They’re not that dissimilar – when I finish a good run, I may or may not sing along with my ipod while I walk my cool-down. Runners high = dancers high? (I’m totally making this up, but I really do think there’s a parallel there!) It’s all about using your body to express music, whether that’s Born to Run, The Distance, or In Da Club.

Often after a hard workout, all you want to do is lie on the couch and not move…which feels awesome…until you have to move again. Then the soreness/fatigue/stifffness kicks in, and we all know that’s just a bummer. So next time you do a hard workout on a Friday or Saturday (or really any day, I won’t limit you!), resist the urge to get cozy on your couch. Instead, set your DVR to record the Olympics, and go out dancing! It uses your muscles in a different way, shakes them out, gets your blood moving, and is FUN! I promise, you’ll be less sore the next day, AND a happier person.

But before you do - please do yourself a favor and listen to this Dane Cook clip. (Watch out for my taser! that's all I'm saying.)

The Weekend Report: Random Thoughts

The Long Run, Again

Saturday morning, against my better judgement, I went on another Women's Trail Marathon training run. Now mind you, I am not planning on running any marathons any time soon. But my friend is going to do this half marathon in a couple weeks, so I'm happy to tag along and run somewhere other than DC for a bit. The trouble with trail running is that it is so freaking slow! It took me a bit over 2 hours to run 13 miles - which is just a long time to be doing anything. 

Within the first couple miles, I came up on this man jogging along. I said "Hey, how's it going?" (because that's what you do) and we ended up chatting for a bit. 

"Not so good today," he said.

Sympathetic noises from me... 

"It's probably because I'm wearing shoes."

Hold up..."Wait, are you the guy who was wearing the Five Fingers last time?" 

"Yep."

"Have you read Born To Run?"

"Yes! It's like my guide to running! I've been running barefoot since the beginning of summer!" 

So finally I've found someone who actually recently started barefoot running. We didn't talk for too long, because he was moving pretty slow and I had places to go, but I learned that he does run in the Five Fingers on asphalt, as well as trails. AND he's already done a barefoot marathon! Crazy!

Places I Never Thought I'd Find Myself

It's funny how life works out. Not to get all existential on you, but it really does blow my mind when I think about it. Five years ago I would never have imagined that I would be here in DC, with the people I'm with, doing what I do!

Saturday night found me at a Kenny Chesney concert in Bristow, VA (Nissan Pavillion). I went with two friends from school: a New York prepster, and an Israeli-American, plus me, a Northern Californian. (We're friends from being on the Ski Team together in Boston.)

So anyways, there we were, in a parking lot in VA. Let me tell you, the people you see at a

 country concert are absolutely amazing! It's really a broad spectrum of humanity. There are normates like us just hanging out sitting on the trunk of a little white car with New York plates. Then the other extreme: people who look like they tailgate for a living: huge pickup trucks, full-sized grills, beer pong tables, tents, and an entire picnic lunch/dinner for them and all their friends. And you see a disturbing number of men who have really embraced Kenny's refrain, 

"No shoes, no shirts, no problems." (Let's be real, some people should really keep their tops on!) And mullets galore!!! At a country concert you have families, adults, frat boys, and everyone in between. It's awesome. 

And then as the Kenny take the stage, he yells, "What's up Virginia!" and everybody (including me) goes crazy. Virginia?!?! Right now that's me, and that blows my mind!

I'll stop there because words cannot do justice to my passion for country music. Let's just say that I am seriously considering becoming a country groupie...

Dance DC Festival 2009

After a bit of a struggle to find the location (for future reference: it's probably a good call to look up the address of a venue in addition to its Metro stop), my LLC, a housemate, and I saw some sweet dance moves on Sunday afternoon. 

We went to see East Meets West, which was advertised as "An explosive performance you will not want to miss, blending the massive moves of West Africa with the rich traditions of the Middle East with a special dance salute."

The small theater was packed with dance enthusiasts - the first (and best) group was Urban Artistry. They combined  African, Latin, Happy Feet, Lindy, Caribbean Movement, Martial Arts, and American Social Dances. How can that not be amazing!?!?! Check out their videos on YouTube.

Next was KanKouran, a West African dance company from Senegal. They were amazingly exhausting to watch. The dancers clearly were enjoying themselves, and the drummers were more than impressive! Here's a video link. 

The last two groups were a bit sub-par - Belly Dancing kind of dragged as they kept on going and going and going. 

And the last group, Bliss Ananda, wasn't dance at all! It was a band! How did they get into the Dance DC Festival? (Answer, a DC Arts Commissioner was one of the band members...) They may have been good, but due to "technical difficulties" (which their spokesman said that 'young people today may not know about' - ummm-ok, I'm pretty sure I'm familiar with the concept) the electric violin was a bit brain-piercing.