Huh.  Somehow, it’s been a month since I last posted.  I do have four posts sitting as drafts, and I will get to posting them.  I promise.

It’s been an eventful month.  One of my best friends from Germany came to visit for a week, which was so much fun.  We did some touristing during the week – I worked on the move while we did the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History.  American History was a lot of fun with her – Europe does American history in broad, broad strokes, so it was really exciting to talk to her about the details, and how history has influenced culture and current events here.  I also took a few hours to take her up to the Hill and introduce her to a staffer friend of mine.  He was able to give us a great tour, including a fantastic extra stop at the Speaker’s Balcony!  As many times as I’ve done the Hill tour, that was the first time I got to do that!  Her last day here, M and I took her up to the National Cathedral, and then over to the Zoo.  We were expecting some massive crowds, especially when we saw that they didn’t have the pandas out in the yard (that pavilion is TINY), but they were doing really great crowd control and the pandas were more active than we’ve ever seen them.  I got some fantastic pictures.

Oh, and M and I were pretty cute too.

 

After the zoo, M and I took her out to Wolftrap to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform with Sarah Chang.  Immediate reviews on twitter were pretty glowing of Sarah Chang’s performance, but I have to be super honest, we weren’t that impressed.  Don’t get me wrong, she was good.  But there wasn’t anything terribly special about her playing ability.  All in all, it was a great week, and I was definitely sad to have to take her to the airport Sunday morning.  I DID manage to also get her addicted to embroidery while she was here, and I sent her off with a bunch of scraps, floss, needles, a bag to put it all in, and a mini quilt for her to embroider.  Because it’s not a vacation at my house unless you also sew. 😉

Beyond that, it’s just been busy.  Work has been crazy hectic, M started a new job and has been stressed out beyond belief, I started marathon training, and I’ve also been trying to stay on top of swaps AND also put together a travel set for BFF.

BFF found out last month that she’s going to be doing her PhD at Max Planck in Germany!  It’s SUCH a big deal, and I am SO proud of her.  I mean, I love Germany.  It is an amazing place, and I’m so happy for her to get to know the country.  I’m also so so proud of her for pushing forward on the grad school dreams.  Max Planck is a huge deal.  I can’t get over it.  BUT, I’m also heartbroken that she’s moving halfway around the world.  We don’t see each other very often – she lives in Boston, but there’s something to be said for the ability to call her in the middle of the night, or the ability to jump on a plane and be with her in an hour and a half – it’s not cheap, but $300 here or there isn’t the end of the world at the drop of a hat.  This is the end of an era, and I’m crossing my fingers that she gets WhatsApp the second she gets a cell phone over there so I can at least text her.  Because otherwise, I might lose my mind.

Obviously, since she’s leaving, I had to make her a travel set, and it needed to include every bag/wallet she might ever need.  So, I started with a Weekender Bag, and then promptly lost my damn mind.  A Wherever You Go Wallet, an Open Wide pouch in each size, a Jane Market Bag, a Manicure Kit, a Travel Kit, a Document Wallet, a Luggage Tag, a Wet Bag, a Bobby Pin Pouch, a Hair Tie Pouch, a Jewelry Clutch, a Toothpaste/Toothbrush Bag, and (theoretically) cord keepers.

Not all of these things are done yet, but I’m making decent progress.  Not great progress for flying to Boston for our last hurrah in less than 24 hours, but I don’t need to sleep tonight!

I promise to have more pictures once I get home from Boston.  In the meantime, I’m going to go grab a drink and head home to sew!