DC Wrap-Up

Last week, I was in DC Tuesday-Friday. As you probably know, I go for "Board Week" each time which is just that, the meeting of the GW Board of Trustees. In good news, I felt we were absolutely the most prepared we'd been for a Board meeting and everything went very smoothly. So smoothly, I worried at one point that I might have done such good prep work that my in-person presence wasn't needed, but when they asked about coming back in June for the Retreat I was re-assured (no, I'm not sure at all that I'll go, but is nice to be wanted and to ponder a free eastern shore weekend... if not for the being nearly 36 weeks pregnant by then...).

Here are some of the other highlights:

1) Reading Fiction! - Between the plane rights and not having to work as late at night I read two books during my trip. One for the book club and the other just for fun. The later was a mystery by Deanna Raybourn (Silent In The Sanctuary (Lady Julia Grey)) that I really enjoyed even though I don't read mysteries all that much.

2) Dinner with Friends! - On Wednesday, I had dinner with Melissa and caught up on Kaps sister fun. Sadly, Shari had to miss out, but we had a great time in Shirlington which was our favorite meeting place when I lived there. Thursday was what has become my "mommy friends" dinner although realistically we were friends well before we were mommies. It was wonderful. It ended up being just Holly, Emily and I as Lynn had a late breaking conflict. We had a wonderful talk and litterally closed the place down. Emily gave Holly and I sweet little lovies for our little ones, but the biggest treasure was getting to laugh, share, vent and just be with two of my favorite people. It was particularly neat to see Holly so happy and loving her first pregnancy and looking forward to the arrival of her little man in September. Thank you so much girls you made my trip!

3) OGC Shower! - My office loves me for reasons I won't claim to understand. Shortly after my arrival on Tuesday they threw me a very pink, super sweet shower complete with Ice Cream Cake (Phish Food Ice cream - my favorite!). They had pretty pink clothes for bitty, sweet sentiments for me and a conference room redone in pink. It was a great welcome back and mean a lot to me.

4) DC itself - the weather actually ended up being suprisingly lovely and I took the time to wander campus and remember. I hung out with Karen my best office buddy, checked on GW's massive construction project that holds an oddly fond place for Brent and I, and enjoyed some of my favorite spots including a wonderful roasted beet salad with goat cheese at Circle Bistro.

I had a great time at my home away from home, but it was wonderful to come back (even in driving rain with my baggage lost). The boys did great without me thanks to lots of help from our families. Thank you to both sets of our parents who took time last week to watch our little guy. Your help and support makes our crazy life possible. We love you!