Natural History Museum

On Saturday my plan was to go into work and do some overtime.  However I heard that the power was out in my work building so I could not go in.  Hence, I decided to go on an adventure.  I felt bad that I had not gone to the Museum of Natural History yet, so I figured that was my next stop. Of course I chose to go on a Saturday when there was no power in much of the area, so the place was packed.  Nonetheless, I had a good time.  I started out in the Oceanic Hall, where there was this neat exhibit about Wright whales, among other things.  They are called "wright whales" because they were the RIGHT whales to hunt, due to their blubber and petroleum. 

After that I headed to the African Voices area, where they showed the history of different areas of Africa with the culture and the slave trade.  It was really interesting, and I got to see different artifacts and masks.  They had this interesting section on apartheid as well.  After that I headed to the Fossil Mammals section which was also kind of cool.  For whatever reason, there were a lot of sloths, haha!  The dinosaur section was of course packed, but I did really like it from what I could see.  Soon after I went to the Mammals Hall, which was also packed.  There was a lot of interesting facts about horses, zebras, and giraffes, which I liked.  The museum also had an interesting exhibit on the Chilean miners.  I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be down in that mine for so long!  The exhibit also showed the news cast of each of them coming up.

On the second floor there was an exhibit on Gems and Minerals, which was absolutely beautiful.  I thought of one of my best friend from college Sam, the geologist!  There were a ton of really beautiful stones, and they discussed the origins.  They talked about different mines around the US, one of which was Morefield Mines, which I went to in elementary school.  I got to see the Hope Diamond, very lovely.  I would have liked a better view, but it was packed.  There was a live butterfly exhibit, but it was crowded and you had to pay to get in, so I did not go through. 

 However my favorite section was the Human Origins area, where they had human skeletons and they talked about the different traits. Apparently you can tell the age of a skull based on the seams on the back and how far apart they are. They also showed two skeletons lined up together of different ages, and you could see how the bones were different and more aged. They showed how a human skull can be reconstructed to show a face, very CSI. It also showed the differences of ethnic origin in the skulls, which I thought was interesting.  They also tied in the bones to the ancient settlers in Jamestown and other historical figures.  That area I probably could have walked around for a really long time, if it were not so crowded and if I was not a little brain dead at that point. 

I am so glad I got a chance to go over there, even if it was a bit crowded.  I think it was neat that they had so many different exhibits that had mass appeal.  The museum was really interesting and I am glad that I can finally say that I've been!  

Capitol + Gallery + Food Tour

It was a rather action packed weekend, so I'll try to give you the play by play =).  On Saturday morning I met up with my friend Uyen and we toured the United States Capitol.  I had scheduled a 9:30 tour, but they made us get there early.  In the visitor's center there was an "Emancipation Hall", where there were statutes of famous people who served as emancipators.  Before the tour stated we watched a film about the Capitol, and then we were divided into groups of about 20, where we were given tours of some of the main rooms in the Capitol.  The first room we saw was the Statue room.  There were probably about 20 statues surrounding the circular room.  The most interesting part was the center of the room which was supposed to be the exact center of the Capitol, which determines which quadrant of DC you are in.  The neatest part was a bust of Abraham Lincoln.  The artist left the ear off of the statue, to symbolize his unfinished presidency. 

This little child stood in the middle of the Capitol, so cute!

Next we went to the Rotunda, and that was absolutely beautiful.  They had these artists construct the art around the band of the rotunda.  Apparently it took three different artists to complete the work.  At the top there are the 13 maidens to signify the 13 colonies, George Washington, Liberty, and one other?  Lastly we went to the room where the House of Representatives used to meet.  It was a small room, and the tour guide showed us how the room echoed and John Quincy Adams used to pretend he was asleep at his desk and he would eavesdrop on the other members.  We also got to see where the desk spaces were for the members.  The tour ended there, and I wish I could have seen more.  So if you or any of your friends has access to the Capitol, please give me a more extensive tour!

Nonetheless, the day continued in an upward pattern.  Uyen and I got mimosas at brunch, and then went to Tru Orleans and had a hurricane.  I got my hair done, and then met up with Jess at the Hamiltonian for a gallery opening.  Apparently the gallery had given several artists a scholarship to work over the year, and their end of the year project was to make a piece of art with some obstruction based on what they may have normally done.  So there were two or three requirements of things that they could not have in their art.  One artist had a picture of what looked like growing mold, one had a project with rocks sticking out of it.  My favorite piece were these beautiful lanterns that were hanging in the middle of the room.  They were paper lanterns with outlines of different people and things.  Apparently the artist made these during a block party on her block in Baltimore, and there was a picture of people helping her make them.  Part of her requirement was to have neighborhood involvement, so she had that. 

After the gallery we had dinner at Alero and then went to my friend Mira's house for her goodbye party.  I got home late, did some things around the house on Sunday morning, and then met up with Katie to do this food tour.  I had no idea what to expect, except that we would (hopefully) be eating a lot of food.  We went to four different restaurants.  The first was District of Pi.  They have an awesome beer list, and they served both deep dish and thin crust pizza.  I got to sample both types of crust.  The deep dish had meat and tomatoes, and it was quite delicious.  I am partial to deep dish pizza though =).  I also got to try the thin crust pizza with zucchini and onions.  It was delicious, and just thinking about it again makes me hungry.

Hungry and sad at District of Pi!

We went to Restaurant 701 on Pennsylvania Ave, and that was a total bust.  The restaurant was completely empty, but they did not let us sit down.  They gave us an amuse bouche of rockfish tartare, and sent us on our way.  I was pretty annoyed at that point, because I was still hungry. The tour guide said that there was some miscommunication with the restaurant.  Our next restaurant was Rosa Mexicana.  They made a ton of guacamole, and Katie and I ate a bunch of it while drinking sangria.  My mood improved greatly after this!  I am a sucker for guacamole, I could probably eat it daily.  Our last restaurant was Ping Pom Dim Sum.  I was excited to go there because I have recently discovered my love for dim sum, and I had not been to this restaurant.  I got to have a vegetable roll, and a shrimp dumpling.  I was pretty full at this point, and Katie and I left.  The food tour was fun, but we had also paid half price for it.  I would not have paid full price based on the quantity of food we received.  I now want to go to District of Pi and Ping Pong Dim Sum for full meals!!!

A new family member....

So I promise I won't become a crazy person and make this blog about my cat or post frequently about him.  But, it was a bit of a saga to get him, and it was part of my personal happiness journey.  Around the time I started this blog I knew that I wanted another cat just because I was lonely at nights.  I was not sure of everything though as it has been hard dealing with the sudden loss of my cat in February.  After he died, I had no intention of getting another cat.  I even donated all of my cat supplies. 

At first, it was my hope to get a foster cat.  I was not sure that I wanted a permanent cat for fear of getting a bad match.  So I contacted the Washington Humane Society and filled out a foster application.  Several days went by, no answer.  Two weeks went by, no answer.  I got annoyed and applied to foster at another shelter, and no answer.  So, I started looking into adopting a kitten.  I went to the Washington Humane Society just to look at kittens, but there were not any that I liked enough.  I went to look at the adult cats as I was there, and there was a black cat who came right up to me.  I petted him and walked away, and he moved so that I'd pet him again.  He jumped into my life and made himself at home.  I thought he was really sweet but I wanted a kitten. 

I went to the Washington Animal Rescue League and found a kitten I liked.  I was then interviewed and the lady very nicely told me that unless I got two kittens I was not getting the kitten I wanted.  When I waivered I was told that I was "not a good match" and I left without a kitten.  I cried and called my mother, and realized that if I wanted a cat I would either have to get two kittens or get an adult cat.  I researched and realized why they wanted me to take two kittens.  I still did not know that I wanted two kittens, and so I decided to go look at the cat I saw at the Washington Humane Society again.  When I got there I went over to him and picked him up, and after that he would not leave my side.  I decided that I wanted to take him home.  This time, the interview was a breeze.  The coordinators at the shelter were so happy that he was being adopted, which made me think that perhaps he had been passed over before.  I had heard that all black cats are often passed over and people do not like them as much.  I was able to take him home that day.  His name at the shelter was "Chip" but I decided that name was dumb.  I researched online for black cat names and came up with "Obsidian".  Obviously that's quite a mouth full, so I decided that he would be "Obie" for short.  He has been very grateful thus far, but our first night was a little rough in that he could not decide whether to explore the apartment and snuggle with me. 

Nonetheless, I have definitely enjoyed having him thus far, he is very sweet.  I think the story has a happy ending because he gets a good home and I get a companion.  A symbiotic relationship indeed =)

Obie was fascinated with the washing machine.

New York New York!!!

So this weekend I had the privilege of going to New York City with my friend Green.  I have been to New York many times, but I had not actually hung out in the city since 2004.  We went to New York to celebrate Green's 30th birthday. 

Our bus drive took a sum total of 6 hours, when it should have taken 4.  During that time there was this super obnoxious girl having multiple conversations on her phone simultaneously.  I was really hoping there was some website that focuses on obnoxious people on public transportation, and I could post her picture to humiliate her.  Alas, no such luck.  Anyway, Green and I were able to master public transportation such that we could get to our hotel.  We wanted to maintain a budget so we stayed at one of the Pod Hotels.  They are budget conscious but the rooms are TINY.  Nonetheless it served our purpose quite well.

Once we checked in we met up with my friend Matt and we went to Candle 79 Restaurant.  It was a fancy vegan/vegetarian restaurant.  We split the nachos after our amuse bouche, and it hit the spot to curb some of our hunger.  As an entree I ended up getting this pasta with seitan, which is a meat substitute, and it wasn't bad!  Green and I split this amaaazing peanut butter dessert.  After that we went to St. Mark's Street in the East Village, to a "speakeasy" called Angel's Share.  We had several mixed drinks, and for whatever reason all of mine smelled like old lady's perfume.  Fail.  Then we went to miscellaneous bars on St. Mark's Street and then got a slice of pizza.  We then went back to midtown where our hotel was and ended the night at a bar nearby. 

The next morning (er, noon) Green and I went to Roosevelt Island on the tramway.  We were able to walk around over there and we took some pictures; it was a lot of fun!  After that we went to meet up with Matt at the Barbecue Festival.  I had been looking forward to this as I love BBQ more than I can say.  However, the lines were two hours per truck, so we ended up going to a BBQ restaurant down the street.  I still got to eat pulled pork and drink beer with my friends, so I called it a win.  After eating our weight in BBQ, the three of us went to Central Park.  We walked down by the boathouse and took some pictures. 

I just thought this was cute!

After returning to the hotel to get ready we went to see Wicked.  OMG, it was so incredibly good.  I did not really like the Wizard of Oz, but Wicked made me like it more.  The music was great, the acting was good, and it was just a wonderful experience.  Minus the small bathrooms...but Matt got us some rum and cokes that we could drink during the performance, so that was pretty awesome.  After the show we ventured into Times Square.  It was crazy busy and I was super overstimulated and wanted to like...eat a McDonalds burger or something!  Green wanted to go to the M&M's store and it was a little insane.  I cannot imagine what it is like to work there.  We went to Emmet O'Lunneys Irish Pub nearby and hung out, and then Matt left and Green and I went to the bar near our hotel.  All I will say was from that point forward the night took a somewhat ridiculous turn =)

Green and I woke up rather hungover, and we ate some breakfast and went to the Puerto Rican Day Parade.  It was a lot of fun, but we were only there a little while before we had to go to catch our bus back to DC.  It was an amazing trip, I think it was well deserved.  I cannot wait to go back again!

Artomatic (Part 1)

While this may not be a "new" thing for me, I do love going to it.  It has been a few years since they have done the program.  It's a free art show where local artists display their artwork, and it's a HUGE show.  This year the show is in Crystal City, and there are 11 floors of art!  We only got through 2 floors, so I plan on going back.  Hence the "part 1" of the title. 

When I got there my friends Amanda and Elsye were at a beer/wine tasting that was part of the show.  After the tasting our plan was to start on the 11th floor where Elsye's friends art was displayed.  However, we got distracted on the third floor where the tasting was.  My favorite artist on the floor was a photographer named Yacouba Tanou.  He was a photographer and he used color in an amazing way in the photographs.  There were photos of an immigrant rights rally with an American flag and some Howard University Cheerleaders.  I didn't snap a photograph because I was worried about somehow debasing the art, but I got over that a little later =)

After that we went to the 12th floor.  We stopped at Elsye's friend's exhibit.  It was photography inspired by the breakup of her boyfriend.  It was desolate photographs from different rundown areas.  I really liked the way she had displayed her business cards.  There was definitely some interesting art work.  I took some photographs of the work that I liked, such as the display with cupcakes in the boxes. 

I walked into this one room and it looked like receipts.  But actually it was this writer who wrote things about escaping the corporate world, and just general frustrations.  He actually had this machine that you could push a button and it would print this little "receipt" with one of his ramblings.  I printed one, and it said

"4:17AM, 15 Jan 12.  I'm ranging further afield in my dreams.  My ghost sluiced out the drainpipe and rippled down the sidewalk to Best Buy, where it coiled in front of a mobile phone display.  I extruded golden fingers and scrabbled at the grass, mewling."

I could not tell you what that means!  But the exhibit was interesting.  There was also a woman named Jolene Sugarbaker whose artwork was dedicated to trailer parks.  It had green carpet with pictures and different photographs describing trailer parks.  It was very interesting- she even had a tote bag that said "I'm from the trailer park" with an RV thing next to her.  Elsye nudged me and said that really anything can inspire you, and really, it was true.  The last thing that I saw that I really liked was an exhibit of photographs of different personalized license plates that were categorized based on what they said.  I looked for license plates that I recognized, but did not see any. 

Overall the experience was a good one.  I had a lot of fun seeing all of the different art.  Some of it was weird, but some of it was super interesting and beautiful.  After giving it some thought I realized that of all of the different types of artwork, I was drawn most to the photography and the mixed media.  I like photography because it can be so clear to find the meaning.  That's not necessarily the case for paintings.  My sister is into mixed media, which is perhaps why it was of interest to me.  I will definitely go back again so that I could get through the other 9 floors!

Hiking at Great Falls Park

So on the lovely Memorial Day weekend I recruited my good friend Aliea to join me on one of my adventures.  I decided to try hiking (again).  For those of you who know me well, you will know that I hate hiking.  I really do.  My hatred of hiking began during my first year of law school when my then-boyfriend convinced me that this was something we should do.  He was really into that sort of thing.  Anyway, he was rather displeased when I did not take kindly to the idea of going to the bathroom outdoors, etc.  We broke up soon after.  Anyway, years later, I decided I would give this hiking thing a try.  I joked that I would have to be consuming beer while doing it, but after the previous day’s activities, I felt as though my liver would not be amenable to that.  I tried to keep in mind that “hiking” is just walking in nature.

Aliea and I managed to get up at 8am, cook breakfast, and be at the park by 10:30am.  I was feeling motivated, so we decided to do the 3 mile hike that involved “scrambling” over some rooks along the river and gorge.  The trail became less crowded as we walked, but when we started this family was in front of us a ways.  We noticed that they had been sitting down, and when they stood up I noticed that the son’s ankle was wrapped up and he was limping along with the rest of the family.  Aliea and I thought that perhaps this family thought this was the Oregon Trail and made the son keep going after injuring himself.  But really, we were only ¼ of a mile in at that point…..Anyway, we were able to get up on some big rocks and take some awesome pictures in the meantime. 

Aliea and I decided that we were SO GOOD at nature.  We pretended we were on the show “Lost” and started saying random hiking terms to prove our expertise.  You know, like the moss grows on the north side of the tree, and we kept looking for it…even though our trail was clearly marked.  There was one point when the trail became very steep and we were scrambling up rocks to get to the top of the hill.  I began questioning the sanity of this hiking plan, but after focusing for a few more minutes the trail plateaued and we realized that the trail had ended and we could take a different (flatter) path back.  Somehow Aliea’s dog Maggie still had energy and she was running along the path everywhere, and while this was happening a bug managed to land on Aliea’s hand.  Now, Aliea is one of the most hardcore people I know, and yet when this happened she began screaming in terror.  I quickly swiped the bug away, and told her I was a “nature slayer” and we decided that should be my title on a business card.  

The rest of the hike went by without incident.  We left the park and went to the pool.  In true Lynn fashion, I became sunburned in random patches on my body.  Nonetheless, the take away point here is that after this three mile hike, Aliea and I became experts on the subject.  We will be available to give any hiking advice you need.  However, there is no need to get carried away.  I will not be caught dead camping ever, in case you were wondering =)



truer words were never spoken

The Museum of Crime and Punishment

This was the first thing to do on my list, technically, and my first museum.  I had been wanting to go here for at least two years, but had not gotten around to it.  Last winter I had actually gotten a groupon for discounted tickets but then never went.  So when there was a living social deal and this project of mine arose, I figured this would be the first stop. 

I wanted to go when it was not crowded so I took a few hours off of work today in hopes that it would not be crowded.  The museum is set up in chronological order.  They had medieval crimes and then colonial crimes (interestingly, just about anything that was not holy could be considered a crime, especially on a Sunday!)  The next thing were pirate crimes.  There was this little blurb about two female pirates who were in disguise as males, and then they met each other.  None of the crew found out, but they were killed during an attack.  The Depression Era criminals were really interesting, and it was neat to see how they were sensationalized by the public in an effort to escape their mundane lives.  I got to see Bonnie and Clyde's getaway car, with the gunshots along the side.  It was neat to see the information on John Dillinger and his accomplices. 



The wild west scene

I definitely loved the information on Mob and the different members of the crime families.  I did not realize that Al Capone and Bugsy Seigel were rivals over bootlegging territory, and Al Capone was respected in the Italian community despite his crimes.  This decreased somewhat when it was clear that he had a hand in Bugsy Seigel's death.  I also got to learn about John Gotti, the "teflon don" as well.  They had an exhibit about "lawmen" including Elliot Ness and some others. 

Al Capone

I moved the more modern crimes, which were actually kind of spooky.  I remember when I was reading about Timothy McVeigh a woman accidentally bumped me from behind and I jumped!  There was something about presidential assassinations as well.  I did not realize that there were other presidents other than Lincoln and Kennedy that had been shot.  The next exhibit was one on prisons.  I had no idea that San Quentin is actually a model for prison reform, and that all of the prisoners are in some sort of education and rehabilitation groups.  Apparently the Arkansas prison was one of the most corrupt, and when they brought someone in to reform it he discovered all of these tortured inmates; when he tried to stop the corruption he was fired.  Alcatraz was never a prison that people were sent to, they had to "earn" the privilege to be transferred there, so that was interesting.  They had a model of Al Capone's cell, based on a picture.  It was quite nicely furnished.

The last thing they had was an exhibit on crime scene evidence and its use.  My eyes glazed over a little bit at this point after everything else.  I had also researched a lot of this in law school.  However, one of my favorite parts was the information on the cold cases.  I really like cold cases, and they had information on the Zodiac killer, the Black Dahlia, and Jon Benet Ramsey.  They discussed the horrible gathering of evidence and prosecution for the Jon Benet case as well as the Nicole Simpson case.  Overall it was an excellent trip.  I probably could have spent 2-3 more hours there, if my brain could handle it!  I think it was an excellent start to my list, and I think it is going to be hard for the future museums to top!