By Lark is My Name @Deviant Art

Coming down from my own Nutella high, I pause for a moment to respond to one fantastic day at home. No, I wasn’t playing hookie–I was taking a much deserved comp day after my post-conference burn out. Took a few hours to go down to Chinatown by myself today and spent a few hours walking around the National Portrait Gallery/Gallery of American Art in delicious solitude. The Gallery was hosting three excellent exhibitions: a thorough Norman Rockwell exhibit from the collections of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas; an Elvis at 21 exhibit featuring a nuanced but still so very innocent singer; and an Americans Now portraiture with a focus on today’s version of celebrity. It was nice to just walk around anonymously–not owing time or response to anyone. Solitude can be endearing sometimes.

Note: If you’re too busy to visit a museum, you should definitely check out this musing from Stephen Fry.

David and I are looking for new apartments–a daunting task in D.C. We’re considering Glover Park, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan (where we are now), and even Van Ness. Here is a map of the DC neighborhoods for those of you who may not be familiar. For David, it’s an issue of space–he wants to spread out his things and not worry that we’ll trip over them. For me, it’s about proximity to the metro (preferably the red line) since I often metro to class in the evenings and I enjoy going downtown. Case in point: look for pictures of my upcoming pasta making class from Hill’s Kitchen on Capitol Hill.

We’ve also secured plans to spend the New Year’s weekend with just us and Buddy at a cabin in West Virginia. Last year during the holidays we dutifully shuffled between our parents houses for Christmas and Thanksgiving, spending a few precarious hours at each before getting back on the road. This year we’ll divide the holidays between our parents (a very difficult  and emotional decision for me) and spend New Year’s at a much quieter estate.

The Photo 365 project hit a bit of a snag between my two-class semester and four major projects at work (Project 1, Project 2, Project 3), but I am trying to stabilize again so the project can be recouped. I’ve posted a smattering of pictures from Weeks 8 ,9 , 10 of the project–an inconsistent collage of travel photos, reflections and landscapes. You can view them to the right of this post or at www.flickr.com/metropoetrylis

Also back on track are book reviews. You can check out at “A Case for the Kindle” at A Shelf of Luminous Pages.

As the weeks heat up to the holiday season I’ll post a few links here and try to weave together some collection of the things shuffling around my thoughts. Although they are often scattered, I’m sure there seems to be some kind of method to their cacophony.

Travel well.