Some New Stuff

Work was slow today. Not LOC slow, but certainly a little more than the norm. My boss is out and will be until Thursday morning. This month he has been traveling an "unusual amount". To me, it's normal (it's all I've known), but he has said that it will slow down tremendously.

The weekend was fun. Friday was relaxing. We stayed in and watched a movie that a former coworker of mine from the LOC suggested, The Long Engagement. It's French and has the actress that I really enjoyed in Amelie. The movie was good, despite it's length. It was long. Heh. Go figure. The character development was somewhat shallow and there were some characters that were unnecessary. However, despite my criticism, it is a good film.

Saturday was spent tidying up and also lounging around the house. Mom and a couple of her friends from NC were passing through (from a visit to CT). They stopped and spent the night. We had a great time! Mal and I were excited to share the apartment with them, especially since Mom hadn't seen it since she helped us move. They got in early enough to eat dinner with us and catch up a bit before we went to bed.

Sunday morning, Mal, Drew, and I took them to our church. The music was awesome and the sermon was encouraging. After church, we ate lunch and I quickly showed Mom the CCCU before she left town. It was a fast trip. Too fast. But, I'll take family when I can get them. Especially my mom!

Sunday night, Drew and I caught a free concert event at the Kennedy Center. They have a free show every night at six. We saw Cibelle (you can actually watch what we saw- they post every show on the website!), a Brazilian singer who "takes audiences on a sonic journey through bossa nova, electronic music, soul, and jazz." It was a beautiful show. At the end, I bought her cd and Drew and I (mostly Drew) talked to her and got her autograph. A very "DC" evening. :)

Tonight Mal and I went to Alpha, a group in the church that aims at tackling questions that are thrown at Christians (and asked by them) all the time. It also educates attendees about other religions and beliefs. So, Mal and I checked it out in the hope of getting plugged into the church more and meeting some new people. Every Monday they have Alpha. It works like this: there's some "meet-N-greet" time, then they provide dinner, there's more gab-time, and then they show a video on whatever topic is to be discussed. After the video, we break into smaller groups and talk about the video. Tonight, I guess we were running late. There was no "breaking up" into small groups. We just broke completely.

While it was certainly an interesting time (Mal and I met some quality people), the group was a bit large for my taste. It was crowded and loud. My idea of a genuine "get to know you" is on a much smaller scale. We probably will go back. We also will probably look for a group that's smaller and more intimate.

Random note: I booked my travel for my next trip back to NC. Mike and I are going to a wedding in Asheville over the weekend of October 20th. Instead of driving down and spending my entire Sunday in the car (from Asheville to Winston and then to DC), I've opted to fly home. I'm taking the train down on Thursday after work. Should be a relaxing ride. I get in after midnight. Mike has offered to pick me up and I'll crash at his place. Then, Friday I'm hoping to have someone pick me up from Greensboro to take me home. Any takers? haha.

Seriously. ::nudge, nudge:: ?