The District and I have a slumber party

It's no less true the more I say it: I have really amazing friends. And it's sad when the course and drift of our lives makes for diaspora more than continued life in the same circles, but, by that same token, it's really wonderful when we get to reunite.

I needed badly to get out of NYC for the weekend, and I'd been talking for a long time about heading south to visit Elizabeth McQueen in DC. Liz is a former U of M cheerleader who decided to do some theatre when we were in college together, and appeared in Information for Foreigners. She has since gone to grad school and now works redesigning airspace (no, I'm not kidding). She is ridiculously smart and curious and funny and I really miss spending time with her.

The train ride to DC is about 3.5 hours, which flew by (courtesy of my nintendo DS and Professor Layton and the Curious Village; I love that game so hard). Once I got to DC, Liz and I had dinner and went out dancing (followed by a dance party in the car on the way home, to such wonderfully bad dance songs as "Relax, Take it Easy" by Mika and "World, Hold On" by Bob Sinclair).

Saturday we spent lazing about at Liz's in Maclean, Virginia, (which I don't have a picture of but, is in the same city where the CIA is headquartered), and went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum so I could see some dinosaurs. Then we met up with her friend Sarah and Heather and saw "Be Kind, Rewind," which was gorgeous in a typical Gondry fashion but not so well acted. Then we headed into DC with Liz's friend Mike to meet with my friends Drew and Isabelle for salsa dancing at this tiny club. Liz and I stayed up until something like 6 (which was just like old times) talking about everything. Sunday was spent hanging out in Dupont Circle (pictured here). Voltaire's is gone - replaced by a new Thai place, sad as that is. We returned home and I jumped on the train and headed back.

I had forgotten how much I love DC. I'd happily move there (and maybe I will when it comes time to look for postdocs) and seeing Liz was really good for me. With so much instability and craziness in my life over the last year, it's great to spend time with people who are characterized by being consistently great, even as they grow and change.