Turn and face the strange... ch-ch-changes

Breathtaking entrance.

Last night I headed over to the Kennedy Center to check out part of the month long Nordic Cool festival. Feraz had asked me to meet him there at 7 because he had wanted to surprise me with a show and I decided to make a full evening of it by going early to check out the Gaup Sisters. (Every night at 6pm, the Kennedy Center has free performances on the Millennium Stage.) The sisters would be performing joiks (pronounced yoik) which are a traditional Sami type of song. The sisters talked about how a grandmother would yoik her grandson, or a husband might yoik his wife and that people even yoiked animals! Needless to say, I started laughing like a third grader every time the sisters talked about yoiking something new. To my defense, a lot of other people couldn't stifle their laughter either.

The Gaup Sisters via washingtoncitypaper.

After all the yoiking, I walked around the Kennedy Center to check out the exhibits. My favorite installment was a collection of waterfall photographs that were presented as posters often are in stores.  When you pulled out any particular photograph, the sound of that waterfall would play. I wanted it in my house so badly.

Sarah and I fought over who would get to take this horse lamp home.

Summer wardrobe.

After some meandering around, I got a text that Feraz had arrived and I met up with him. I found out that we were going to see Metamorphosis performed by an Icelandic and British company! Feraz scored us great tickets up front in the orchestra section. I always feel like I should go home in a town car after I sit in orchestra.

I think Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis is one of the greatest short stories ever written. I had no idea how it would translate to the stage and was impressed by the clever set design. The bottom half of the stage was set up as a traditional house and the top half was set up to create the illusion that the audience had a bird's-eye view into Gregor's room. The actor that played Gregor was a phenomenal gymnast. For half the show he was hanging sideways from walls and ceilings. See the picture below.

via Washingtonpost.

Overall, I don't think the performance did justice to Kafka's work but that is a monumental task for anyone cast or production team to take on. Although the play fell short, it was still a great work and worth seeing.

I swear that all these robots live on coffee and donuts

This morning,  Feraz and I went to see our new place. We are moving- again! Third apartment in three years in DC. We are moving to Pentagon City to live closer to Feraz's brother and to down size our life a bit. I was really against living in VA but Feraz found us such an amazing and reasonably priced place that there was no way I could resist. We are going to be able to paint and have more freedom with the space, so I'm really looking forward to that as well! Cheet-o orange walls anyone? Yes, please. 

Salted Caramel donut. Sticky on the fingers but worth the mess.

After we finished meeting with the landlord we drove to the new donut place, Zeke's Donutz in Dupont. Today was their grand opening and they were giving away free donuts for the first 200 customers. Anytime we hear free and donut in the same sentence, we are there! Unless the sentence is "Eat this donut and get shot for free."  There was great music playing so I danced while we waited our turn in line. I figured I could eat the donut guilt free after two minutes of dancing so I helped myself to some of Feraz's donut too.

After the donut run, Feraz wished me luck as I drove home. Although I started driving again toward the middle of last year, I had still been pretty hesitant to drive in the city until about a week ago. A friend needed a ride to the embassy so I offered to take her. It wasn't bad at all! I actually gained so much confidence in my city driving that I even drove in New York while I was there this past weekend! But even with that bevy of accomplishments, I am still a very green city driver and am not used to parallel parking.

Luckily, when I pulled up to our house, I saw a huge spot right out front. As I was about to park, a guy in a Mercedes came and reversed his car to the back of the spot forcing me to parallel park between his car and another. I rolled down my window and asked if he would mind pulling up so I could pull in behind him and he looked at me as if I told him I had murdered his first born and said, "Yes, I would mind." Then he made a show of getting out of the car to make sure I wouldn't hit his. I considered just looking for another spot but the expression on his smug Tagg Romney looking face wouldn't let me. I took a deep breath and pulled into that spot like I was born to perform that one act. It was truly beautiful. I got out of the car, turned to his girlfriend and said, "You should leave this douche bag. He is going to be a horrible father." Well, I didn't really "say" that in the conventional manner but I did say it in my head. Twice.

saved by the mop

There is something funny about dancing around my kitchen singing saved by the bell and right when I get to the part where it goes, "it will be allllll right" I knock over the french press and coffee spills everywhere.

I tried to find the theme on youtube but can't find a good version. Isn't it amazing that there was a time when sitcoms that were supposed to be portraying high school kids actually used high school kids as actors? Now we just expect men and women to infantilize themselves into their late 20s. 

Remembering Valentine's Days of Yesteryears

I love Valentine's Day. Each year I try to do some fun things and make it really special for Feraz. This morning, I made him breakfast in bed. The only problem is that he woke up before I finished making breakfast and I had to run to the room and tell him to get back in bed and wait five minutes.

Have you ever made your own Valentine's Day card? I highly recommend it!

I got Feraz's breakfast ready, gathered up his presents and went to 'surprise' him in the room. As we sat there with the rays of the morning sun hitting us as we had our breakfast, I thought, this is the good stuff. I am so grateful for this life we have together.

And as I thought that, I thought of why I wanted to do this for Feraz. I know a lot of people look at Valentine's Day as a Hallmark holiday and are hesitant to celebrate it. I actually think Feraz is one of those people! But every day, he does the little things that are the true marks of love. He goes to work every day and supports us, he makes me tea twice a day, he picks up after himself, takes care of any dishes there are in the sink and whenever I want to have a dance party, he always, always humors me.

Love is something we both work at all the time. Our marriage is something that we both work at all the time. And even though it is far from perfect, I am so thankful for our life together. It is a life in which we have made our family our priority and because of that we have so much time to give to each other. I want to take advantage of every excuse there is to celebrate that!

Molasses cookies. Nomnomnom.

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Nomnomnom.

And here are some pictures from past Valentine's days.

Valentines Day 2010: Spain! Ahh, the joys of living in Istanbul where we were able to go on a long weekend trip to Spain. 

Valentines Day 2011: We decided to drive out to Shanendoah, have diner food (such a treat when you live in DC!) and check out the icicles.

Valentines Day 2012: It was a lovely day at home that ended with a candle light halal Chinese dinner!