Flower Shop Studio Reunion

It Takes Two to Tango.
Rather than chancing an unexpected reunion, Thursday afternoon I met Will at the National Portrait Gallery atrium, one of my very favorite spots in DC. Didn't anticipate the tango lesson to be going on around our table; but we had a nice time catching up on the last 4 months and even laughed our way through (most of) the awkwardness. We ended up grabbing dinner as well at a delicious mezze restaurant close to the Portrait Gallery called Zaytinya.

New York City, You're So Pretty.
Friday brought my college roommate, Laura, down on a train from NYC. We kicked back and caught up on the last 10 months. Despite our different choices along the way, our lives have run quite parallel. So it was, as always, pleasurable and insightful to chat and dissect it all.

Sean and Kelsey made the trek down from Baltimore and it was a reunion of the Flower Shop Studio minus the stress of our senior thesis exhibitions. We had a blast.
Emily joined us as we all went out for some pub food at McGinty's. This is the second time we've encountered a rude bartender there (oh wait, it was the same one. why so crabby??)
Then we headed to the Dubliner in hopes of some live music. We walked in to a slow ballad about something depressing and you could hear the crickets.

We entertained ourselves with some finger mustaches and tried to kick up the excitement a little bit with a little percussion assistance to Whiskey in the Jar.


Finally we threw in the towel and decided to head to the Quarry House.
Tommy joined us for a few minutes before wandering off somewhere.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.
Saturday we awoke from the slumber party and decided to go to the zoo. Good morning Kelsey!
Good morning Sean. Please don't eat my camera.

Laura, Sean, and I all went through the gates towards the train, Kelsey did not. For the third time, Kelsey ended up deactivating her metro card and had to buy another one. She is banned from ever carrying her own card again.

I foiled our metro plans to get to Busboys and Poets, so we went to plan 6C and grabbed delicious salads from Chop'd in Chinatown and settled on the stairs of the Portrait Gallery.
Back on the metro towards the Zoo and we all started giggling about Sean trying to squeeze into the seat.

"I'm just not meant for this world. I'm built for a larger world and stuck in this one." -Sean with sad face.
We made it to the station and took the shuttle to the zoo.
Prairie Dogs.
All day, the one thing Laura really wanted to get to see was the big cats section. We entered the area, greeted by the sign "...can be seen from 10am - 4pm daily..." at 4:10. Sad face.
Luckily we went around the corner and found a tiger still out. I think Sean is doing an impression of it here.



Rocking the aviators.
This guy was a little show-off. He got an A+ for the day.

In my face.


Welcome to the Zoo!
I didn't eat this crab.
Turtle turtle.
Hungry, hungry (pygmy) hippo.
Beautiful flowers by the tiger.
Laura graded this coral as an A+.
Kimono Dragon.
Invertebrates. Giant Octopus was getting all of the attention, but this guy was way cooler.


Panda Bear slumbering. The astounding audio to this picture:
Girl: "Pandas are proof that god exists. They're not adapted properly to their environment so natural selection never happened. And they're not tough, they're just cuddly. So god just created the panda to be cute for us."
....
...
....
I couldn't make that up.
After much convincing, I finally got Sean to smile normally for the camera.
Happy day at the Zoo.
Kelsey had a good day, too.
Laura is so cool.

The three stooges. Again.
Hi Laura.

Pizza, Pizza.
The Zoo tuckered us all out, so we decided to have an evening in. We got supplies for a do-it-yourself pizza bar, allowing each of us to develop our own culinary creation.

Sean enjoyed his.
Kelsey had some difficulties keeping everything in place, but it was still delicious.
I did a white pizza with alfredo, seasonings, fresh garlic, spinach, basil and lots of cheese. Yummm.
We enjoyed our pizzas and got to business with Sequence - my favorite game. Laura and I hit a bit of luck and kicked butt (to be fair, this was the first time Kelsey and Sean had played). I missed this game! Will and I used to have epic Sequence battles back in DeLand (I of course kicked his ass). I'm a little rusty, but it was like riding a bike - I jumped right back on my game :)
We rocked out all night to the awesome music Stephen sent (I love it! everyone loved it! thank you!!)
Ringo was getting all kinds of love. He always has to be the center of attention.

Parental Guidance Recommended.
For some reason, when I get together with some groups of friends our maturity level reverts back to that of a 13 year old boy with "that's what she said"s flying back and forth. Read forth at your own risk.

Leaving the Dubliner on Friday
Kelsey: Heidi, I kneed you in the ass.

Dinner and games on Saturday
Heidi: Sean, you're so funny.
Sean: Yea, I have to make up for my lacking in other areas.

Dinner and games on Saturday
Kelsey: Man, you've got to have big hands to work these two decks.
Laura: My hands aren't that big and I worked it just fine.

And of course there are the visuals. Sean and Kelsey were getting a little bitter that we were beating them 8 to 0, so they made a little present for us when we were making the fruit tray. It must have intimidated us, because soon after the tables turned and they beat us a few games!
Girl Talk.
Laura and I bid goodbye to Kelsey and Sean and in a throw-back to freshman year, we stayed up half the night giggling, crying, and laughing.

This morning we metroed to Union and she was off on the train back to New York.
Happy...

...and sad.

Bye Laura!
Crafty Corner.
Not much craft talk this post, but I can show off the adorable bracelets that Kelsey made for Laura and I. Thank you!!
Per request, here is a modeling shot to show off my new IKEA pillow-case tote bag.
Phew, epic weekend calls for epic post. Happy Sunday night!