16 Notes for 16 Days (and a few more than 16 photos) - Part II

11. Way back in May (Oh, that feels like forever ago), Amber, Melissa, Kara and I decided we wanted to see a show at the Kennedy Center. How we narrowed in on Mary Poppins, I'm not sure, but it was a fantastic choice for all! They all thought it amazing that one of my life goals is to work at the Kennedy Center without ever stepping foot inside. I'm sure you all know my first choice would've been to see an opera or the NSO, but I was in no way disappointed by the show or the company!! Check out Amber's take on the evening here.

We changed into cocktail attire in the 4th floor bathroom, primped, and made our way to Kara's new condo on the metro where we dropped our cars for the evening adventure. The metro carried us into the city for a great pre-theater dinner at Notti Bianchi that was timed to perfection for our show. Our server was great, the food was pretty good, and the atmosphere quaint, but we couldn't stay there much longer than for photos.

L to R: Kara, Amber (Nibs), Me, and Melissa (M)

Kara was excited about the show, and she's even more excited about our plans for Legally Blonde: The Musical at Wolf Trap in a few weeks!

The Kennedy Center was just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the restaurant, and we made it just in the nick of time for the Overture. I was in a fairytale land, and not because I was watching Mary Poppins. The John F. Kennedy Center, the epitome of arts and culture in America....

And don't I just fit right in! :) Bright, colorful... LOVE it! Speaking of bright and colorful, I missed the black memo.

How is it no matter where I live, I always have beautiful friends?? 

I got yelled at by the usher for taking photos with my cell phone before the show started, so this is the only photo I could sneak of the theater itself, and it was after the show. We discovered while getting yelled at that a mother/daughter pair was sitting to our right that had been with us at the restaurant. We struck up conversation and learned about Caitlyn and mother Courtney who were at the same quaint (small) restaurant, and ended up on the same shuttle and metro with us. It was all a coincidence, but we had fun laughing with them.

12. True story (as if all the other ones had been fake, right): the metro....not so cool late at night. And no, it's not because it's unsafe, expensive, or difficult. It's because it's stifling hot, extremely slow, and very delayed between trains. We just barely missed the train as we were coming in, and that kept us waiting 20 minutes for the next train in the unbearable heat.

The face that can get us just about anything, and yes, we know it. ;)

It must have been 100 degrees in there, and the air was completely stagnant. To make matters worse, as we're sitting innocently taking photos of our misery and complaining about our desire for diet coke (Nibs) and coke (me), Melissa looks over to the next bench and says, "Ummm... I just saw a mouse." My feet are instantly off the floor, and we all have a good laugh at our disgust. Needless to say, we were all delighted when the train came at last!

13-16. As if my month hadn't had enough excitement, this past weekend was my dear friend Kay and her perfect-for-her husband Greg's wedding. We decided to make it a girls weekend with our plus one's, and were so delighted that we did! Lucy flew in to DCA, and I took my first technical vacation time off from work in the afternoon on Friday to go pick her up and make the 3.5-5 hour trek through Northern Virginia to Blacksburg where the wedding was being held at the German Club Manor at Virginia Tech. Once we all arrived to the hotel, we quickly got ready and headed out to the downtown area for dinner and evening festivities. I was so delighted to see and catch up with Lucy, Danielle, and Margaret, especially Margs since I hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving weekend.

Check out Margaret's fabulous body wave in her hair. <3

A perfect angel...

Between this photo and the next one, a not-so-nice fellow I'd been seeing for the past month tried to put a damper on my evening, but no, no, no, that was not happening. And no, no, no, he is no longer happening either.

Since my battery is about to die, I will truncate my 16 notes here, but I promise to give you more details about the wedding (and tons of photos) and the million other things that have been going on in my life tomorrow. I'm giving up on the notes though, back to normal Faulknerian thoughts tomorrow. xoxo