MKS Adventures: November 2016

After returning from Liberia I was pretty beat. I always, without fail, get sick after one of my big trips from that unique combination of exhaustion, decrease in adrenaline, and the flying cesspools of disease that are planes and international airports. As September began I decided to bite the bullet and do the Whole30 program. Basically it is like a total reset. For 30 days you eat no added sugar (that includes alcohol and any kind of sweetner), no legumes (that includes peanuts and all soy), no grains (bye bread, bye flour), and no dairy (gotta pass on that cheese). It is very restrictive, but the idea is that if you actually stick to it for 30 days you'll see differences. I'd been talking about doing it with Jess for a long time, and September I actually bit the bullet.

The first few days are not pretty. Most people come down off sugar pretty hard. It is difficult for me to adjust to cooking every meal myself - like actually taking the time to cook breakfast every morning - and to doing all the many many dishes I created. It also is a little more expensive in the beginning as you buy all the replacements for the crap in your pantry (coconut aminos to replace soy sauce, things without added sugar, etc). BUT once you get into the swing of things I really liked it. All the food I made was absolutely delicious (and beautiful) and I'm not just saying that for me, other people who had the food agreed!

The Whole 30 shelf in my kitchen!

One night in September my mom and I went out to visit my uncle Todd and his girlfriend Connie at their new place in Virginia. It is a townhouse build right onto this lake that is really beautiful. They also have a boat...but its kind of a special boat. Apparently years ago some guy wanted to get a boat and asked the city for permission to build a dock. They were concerned that people all over would build crazier and crazier docks that they said no, but agreed to still let him have the boat. So, this intrepid fellow made a boat that LOOKS like a dock. Literally when I saw it for the first time I 100% did not know that it was actually a boat. Now everyone has them. The boat has a little tiny motor and we puttered out to the middle of the lake to eat the (Whole 30 approved) dinner that I made as the sun set. It was lovely.

That is the boat. Hence my confusion.

Connie and Todd out on the lake.

Beautiful dinner with perfect end-of-summer weather.

About a week later I headed up to Boston to get a serving of some of my favorite people in one of my favorite cities. There will always be a special place in my heart for Cambridge - both from my time at Harvard and when I worked there. Something about the mix of history and modern, the incredibly smart and diverse people you get to surround yourself with thanks to some of the country's leading schools, and the proximity to the Charles River make it a really special town. I went up with the best of intentions and then promptly broke my Whole30 about 11 days in because I decided to celebrate my birthday early, in place where I actually had friends, and drank at our cookout. 100% worth it, no regrets.

The headliner event of the weekend was definitely a cookout, where a bunch of my friends from work came over to the lawn beside Seano's house and we played lawn games, drank, and at the excessive amounts of food that Seano and I had prepared. So much food. Honestly we spent most of the weekend eating really damn good food. Our buddy and ex-coworker Aungar came out from Rhode Island, and Kayt (our ex-coworker who lives in Boston still) came out to play as well. It was so nice. One of the things I really really miss about our office in Cambridge was that there were so many of us and we spent so much time together just having fun. There was always someone to count on if you wanted to grab drinks, or dinner, or a movie, or a sweet piece of grass for a lawn game. That is not the case in our DC office, so it was nice to be back in the little cocoon up north!

Our bucket o' bbq supplies.

Seano grilling it up.

His next door neighbors (on the far side) happened to have a barbeque the same day, so we shared the yard.

Mike and Seano plying the new ladder game while others chat along the wall.

Sunset!

Boston office loves!

Autumn tastes like gigantic mugs of hard cider.

When I came back to DC I climbed aboard the Whole30 train once again and actually finished my 30 days. It was super empowering, I felt great, and I lost some weight, so I'd suggest it to anyone interested. It isn't easy, but you do feel accomplished when you're done! During the month I had a few visitors who got to enjoy some healthy meals, so that was also nice - to be able to share it.

Chris came to work out of his company's DC office for a day so we made dinner and chatted.

Jess blew through town briefly and it always does my
heart good to see her.

Conor and I finally met up after yeaaaaaaars of not seeing each other and brought one another up to speed on our lives.

I also spent a fair amount of time in Maryland in September as I sorted through my entire storage unit (read: multi-year dumping ground) because I needed to make space for all the stuff in my house. Basic back story, my lease was up at the end of October, and I knew I wasn't staying in that house. My roommate Lukas had bought a condo and I wasn't interested in taking over the whole lease myself. Although I liked the place I didn't LOVE it. In November I knew I was going to Nairobi for work for a month, and it seemed silly to move my stuff to a new apartment where I would have to pay rent even though I wasn't living there, so I decided to put all my stuff in storage, extend my trip in Kenya for a bit, and just find a place when I was ready to come back to America in January. I was already paying for a storage unit, and not really interested in getting another, so I decided to go through the (literal) years of life detritus in my unit to sort things into keep, trash, and donate. I donated a LOT of stuff. I threw out a LOT of stuff. I kept some stuff. It was therapeutic but also incredibly time consuming.

Before on the left (what a mess!) and after on the right (sooo much better organized!).

October brought my birthday and an attempt to get a little more culture in my life. My mom and I celebrated our birthdays with brunch and a trip to the Kennedy Center to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (which was quite good).

Enjoying the sun before the show.

Later, Obi (my grad school roommate who lives in Balitmore) and I used some tickets I'd gotten months and months before to visit to the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture. This museum is incredible, though that shouldn't surprise me at a Smithsonian at this point. There are several floors above ground, brimming with exhibits, and then special interactive exhibits in the basement. The timed tickets you reserve online are for the museum overall, but the exhibits downstairs are limited entry, so there is an additional line for those. by the time we got there there was already a two hour wait for the downstairs exhibits, which would have meant that we couldn't see all of the upstairs. Unfortunately, we had to skip the interactive exhibits, but they are supposed to be incredible, so I'll definitely be going back in the future. There is also an AMAZING museum restaurant, serving up all different kinds of food, that we spent some time in. It was a great outing.

Washington Monument peaking around the NMAAHC.

Beautiful painting that incorporated West African adinkra symbols
like the one in my tattoo (and logo)!

Incredibly detailed drawings that I could have looked at for hours.

HGSE roomie love.

On October 22, my cousin Rachel got married. My mom has one brother and one sister, and since across that side of the family there were only 5 cousins, we all grew up quite close. When I was younger, Rachel was like a little shadow. We often wore the same outfits, staged elaborate plays in my grandparents' living room, and spent hours floating around the pool in their backyard perfecting our pairs underwater aerobics routines. She met Dave in high school, so he's been a fixture in our lives for a long time, and they now live in Maryland (its so nice to have them close!). My mom and I went up to PA on Friday to help get stuff ready and go to the rehearsal (I was doing a reading) where we met up with my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces. My older niece was the most perfectly adorable flower girl you could have imagined. Aside from it being colder than expected, the weekend went off without a hitch and was filled with warmth, love, and laughter.

Getting wrangled into her flower girl dress for the rehearsal.

I mean, OBVIOUSLY Minnie is coming along.

She's like a tiny Audrey Hepburn!

My brother and the flower girl.

Rachel and Dave rehearsing!

Gorgeous trees! I love autumn.

Entertaining everyone at the rehearsal dinner.

All set and ready to go.

As a thank you for being in the wedding she got a bear that had a tutu that matched her dress.
It was love at first sight, haha.

Helping set up the reception room on the day of the wedding.

After set up was done, I went to the mall with this stylish little lady before
it was time to head over to the wedding.

My sister-in-law and my younger niece.

Professional flower girl

The last thing my brother told her to do before she walked down the aisle was
to smile. She followed his directions, hahahahahaha.

The beautiful bride, Rachel, and her dad, Rich.

So lovely.

Not sure how these girls didn't actually freeze!

My mom and the flower girl during the ceremony.

Now pronounce you man and wife!

The new Mr. & Mrs. Wagner.

Cake and some of the paper sunflowers I made.

Close up on paper sunflowers.

Love this little nugget!

Love love love.

Hahahahahhaa somebody got into the cake.

She was heavily invested in the wedding cake, as one should be.

Then, before I knew it, the end of the month rolled around and it was time to move. Jess, because she's an amazing and slightly neurotic human who loves packing, and because she's just one of my very best friends, came to visit for my last weekend to help me get cleared out of my old place. She the actual, honest to god best. Thankfully we were able to mix a little fun with the work. On Friday night we got all dressed up and went to the Kennedy Center to see the San Francisco Ballet perform Cinderella. It was absolutely beautiful. Saturday, Jo Anna came down, we got a different kind of all dressed up, and had some Halloween fun. Sunday we packed and cleared out of my apartment, and Monday Jess headed down to see her family in Virginia while I came to DC to vote in my first ever presidential election (#imwithher) and then headed back to my parent's house to truss up my dogs against their will in Halloween costumes and hand out candy to kids. Tuesday I flew out to Kenya. WHEW.

Any good weekend with an out-of-town visitor starts with a trip
to Bravo Bar for their $5 PBR/Jameson/hot dog combo!

Fancy laaaaaaaaaadies.

Definitely feelin' fancy.

Sunset from the terrace at the Kennedy Center.

Carmen San Diego, Crossfitter (we made that shirt and barbell, you jelly?), and Baby from Dirty Dancing
(with her watermelon, of course). Jo Anna got the prize for hardest to identify, but actually closest to the real thing, haha)