procrastination

I have no desire to work at the moment. The beginning of the week can be so hard! Kirsten and I had a really good weekend. She is house sitting for one of our bosses who is in Mozambique at the moment, so we plotted a mini-escape from Baltimore for the weekend. It was great. I didn’t realize just how much being surrounded by concrete all the time has influenced my psyche, but as we drove down to Columbia and saw, gasp, trees and green I realized how much all the downtown buildings can depress me. Without a car, I often feel trapped in the urban jungle, destined to never see foliage again! (Ok, maybe I am being a little overdramatic there).

Columbia was a great respite. We slept in late on Saturday morning and watched television all day, mesmerized by the cable neither one of us has in our homes. There were so many channels! After vegging out all day long, we drove into DC to see Christine for the evening and went out dancing in Adams Morgan. So fun! Ever since Christine’s bday in April I have wanted to go back there and hang out. It is a very unique space, with club after club in old row homes and people everywhere. We ended up in the lounge of The Blue Room, and once that closed grabbed some pizza at Jumbo Slice. Now, that may seem like a normal activity except that this particular pizza place had a disco ball, neon lights and the best dance music we had heard all night. People danced in line as they waited for their food, it was bizarre and great.

We didn’t end up in Columbia again until 4, and I slept away Sunday morning while Kirsten was good and went to church. I was too tired from the night before to go, so I hope God forgives! All in all, it was a great weekend which makes it harder to sit at my desk today.

A few interesting things in the news:
Loved this article from last week's New York Times about pigeons in Trafalgar’s Square. Every time I have gone to London I have made an effort to people watch there, and I guess now a “radical splinter group” of pigeon feeders is destroying the Mayor’s plan to get rid of the pigeons.

This is a really sad piece about an African woman who lost her daughter to FGM. I cannon imagine how difficult it would be to make a choice for your child that you believe will allow her to grow up healthy and well, and then she ends up dying because of that choice. Truly tragic.

This is an article from today’s NY Times about women in Indonesia and some of their struggles. Once again, it makes me thankful that I am a woman who grew up in America.