no one knows

Actually had a relatively busy week, but since it was all for the AP, and the AP has an awesome policy of not giving stringers bylines, it was done anonymously.

But for those interested, here's what I was up to this week, told in a list of reverse-chronological order links:

Thursday

Wednesday, part II

Wednesday, part I

Monday

leavin' town

Long drives are in my future.

Starting tomorrow morning, we'll be piling into a car packed with too much stuff, making a trek from D.C. to Missouri for the holidays. It's not going to be quite that simple, though. The itinerary includes stops in Indianapolis, Chicago and Cleveland, and while we're in Missouri we'll be hopping back and forth between Joplin and Springfield a few times.

I'm not sure how much relaxing there will be. Hopefully some, but it might be the sort of vacation leaving us needing a vacation when we return.

Yesterday we had a day of the sort we should have more often in D.C. but don't, because most of the time we sort of forget to leave the house or our neighborhood.

We started downtown for some Christmas shopping and stumbled across a Christmas Market of arts and crafts. None of which we were interested in buying, but it beat going to Macy's.
Then we abandoned shopping for the afternoon, instead wandering to the National Gallery of Art. We checked out an exhibition of photographic snapshots before heading over to a free screening of a Romanian film. We had originally thought about sticking around for a classical performace by the Leipzig String Quartet but when we left the auditorium after the movie, the line outside for the quartet stretched through the lobby and the museum's shop, clear from the east wing to the west wing. Thankfully, we'd already decided to give the quartet a miss, since I don't think we'd have made it in. Instead, we headed to Chinatown for some cheap dumplings and another go at Christmas shopping.

It's the sort of day I plan in my head fairly often, but rarely execute. It beat hanging out in the suburban strip malls and big-box stores trying to run down a few last presents.

snow!

D.C.'s first snow of the year is falling as we speak I write. There's nearly an inch on the ground already, which makes the thick stand of leafless trees in the park behind my house look far better. It makes most things look far better.

Except drivers. I'm about to go out and see just how freaked out the District's car-driving populace is in the face of a few frozen water crystals falling from the sky.

As happy as I am with the snow, this isn't my first snow of the season. I got that out of the way more than a month ago during my trip to Denver. That snowfall was also far more impressive than this one, but I'm hoping this one, unlike my last, sticks around a day or two.

one year later

It has now been slightly more than one year since we arrived back in the States after our overseas tour. Somehow, my time in New Zealand seems as though it occurred more recently than our stay in Missouri at the beginning of this year. I probably tell fewer stories about our trip now, which I'm sure those I'm talking to appreciate.

I expected the travels to feel like a break from the arc of my "real" life. Instead, being back feels like the break. Of course, I imagine a big part of the feeling is because my "real" life, or at least my career path, is still on hold. I've been getting some freelance work, but so little I have almost nothing to point to in terms of what I've been doing. I'd like to break out, have something to work on, earn some money. Gotta change something, but it'd be nice if I end up being able to do something at least related to what I want to do.