Had a nice quiet dinner with my hosts A. and S. and their two friends, down from New York for the inauguration. I brought a pie from the pie lady at the Durham Farmer's Market to contribute to the dinner. It was a lemon pie, which I love, but not everyone is crazy about lemon desserts. Well this pie was a big hit. It was a layer of lemon curd and then slices of candied lemon which were edible, including the rind. Really intense lemon flavor, not too sweet and not too tart. The pie lady never lets us down!
We had all been invited to a party but everyone bailed except A. and her oldest daughter. Younger daughter was tired, S. is getting over a cold, and all the out-of-towners including myself wanted to get a good night's sleep and be fresh in the morning. I'm aiming to leave here about 6:15-6:30 tomorrow. I'll walk to the Metro station, take it into the city and then walk to my security checkpoint. The others don't have to go through security so they're leaving around 8:30 and taking the bus.
A. gave me a map with pedestrian routes marked: I thought at first these were permanent pedestrian walkways but they are actually roads which have been closed for the day. In fact it looks like I'll end up walking on I-395 where it tunnels under the Mall. Georg and I drove through that tunnel on our way up before Thanksgiving (we missed the exit off the HOV lane and ended up driving right through the middle of DC) so it will be kind of cool to walk it.
Tonight I'm going to shower, lay out my clothes for tomorrow and pack everything up. I might even put my suitcase in my car tonight, so I won't have to deal with lugging it out while everyone is still asleep. I can put my pajamas in my computer bag and toss them in the car on the way out in the morning.
I also need to figure out how to make my phone act as an alarm clock. There's no clock in this room and I don't trust myself to wake up that early without an alarm.
A. and S. have two cats who are standoffish with strangers, but love burrowing. They seem torn between not wanting to get too close to me, and really really wanting to crawl under the blankets on the air mattress in here. I left the door cracked so they can get in and out as they please.
Leave a comment