Last Saturday, my best friend since fifth grade, Debi, and I went on a DC downtown adventure (a very late celebration of her birthday, which is in October). We met at a very crowded Renwick Gallery to take in one of the last days of the Murder is Her Hobby exhibit. Visitors huddled around the little murder rooms, created by Frances Glessner Lee, depicting sordid deaths of the working class. We all speculated freely about what had happened to the hapless victims. It was grisly fun.
We then pigged out on delicious cheese redundancy at the nearby GCDC Grilled Cheese Bar. A shared ramekin of lobster mac and cheese and cheeseburger grilled cheese sandwich later, we rolled out and sought caffeine at Compass Coffee a few blocks away.
Time for a walk. Consulting a map attached to the side of a bus stop, we set off to visit an obscure monument to The Nuns of the Battlefield. But we got distracted by St. Matthew’s Cathedral and totally missed the monument. Yes, there is a cathedral in the middle of downtown DC and it is gorgeous inside, with a majestic rotunda and interesting art in all the side chapels. We spent some time reading about all the artwork and marveling at its intricacy. (I’ve attempted my first ever Word Press Gallery here to showcase some highlights!)
After walking blocks out of our way, and finding another little known monument to German homeopath Samuel Hahnemann, we got some intelligence from a passerby that the Nuns were located, logically, right across the street from St. Matthew’s and we had walked right past their monument. We circled back to pay homage. There they were, the noble ladies, in bas relief flanked by female warriors in 3-D. Elsewhere in the city, modern day female warriors were marching in their pink hats and chanting in support of other noble causes. Here, hidden in plain site, was the quiet testimony to these Civil War era women who did what they could, when they were needed. Visit them sometime if you can find them.
The Dynamic Gingerbread Trio – Katie, Khamo and I – just finished our goopy, inedible creation, which we’ve been meaning to make for about a week now, or at least in time for Russian (Orthodox) Christmas (January 7). Inedible because it is a kit that I purchased for $1.50 at after Christmas sales about five years ago. The “ready to use” frosting was so hard that we had to revive it with hot water to make it usable, and it smelled nasty.
We were also late, but not that late, with our tree, which has become a new holiday tradition at our house. We spend Christmas (the December 25th version) with my mom, sister and brother in law in Hilton Head, SC. It is usually about 75 and not feeling at all like Christmas, the only “white” part being the beach sand. When we return to Arlington on the 26th, we start the ritual of finding a Christmas tree – on the street.