Sunday Currently : 3

This weekend involved equal parts being a blob and being active. The hubs and I took a journey down to Eastern Market in one of my favorite DC neighborhoods, I practiced my Mad Photography Skillz, I did some reading, and we did some honeymoon planning.

I also ate this linzer cookie:

It was just as delicious as you imagine it was. You're jealous, I know. It's okay.

This was my first week back after the winter break, and I was adjusting to my work schedule and clinical placement schedule. There are some changes from last semester that I'm still adjusting to, and I need to think of how to best spend my time. This was a slow week, but I felt tired, anyway. Since I'm traveling this week again for my final interview, things will feel a bit thrown off. I'm just hoping that I readjust quickly and muster up some energy so I don't feel like an Eeyore.

Truthfully, I had a major case of the blues earlier this morning. That darn restless anxiety has been creeping up on me again. It's the feeling of being in a messy room, where every out-of-place paper seems to be taunting me. I tried to write this post a few hours ago, when that feeling was whirring through my mind, leaving me confused about exactly why I felt so sad. So I went for a quick run, did some dishes, opened up the windows, put on some bright blue pants, and went outside. I'm now in Starbucks, feeling rejuvenated, caffeinated, and happy. My goal for today was to feel at peace again, and I think I've done that. It's amazing what a little activity can do for the soul! 

reading : A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, which is unexpectedly enjoyable. I thought I wasn't a Hemingway fan, but old Ernie has drawn me in, anyway. Also reading a photography book from the library with the hope that its knowledge will be magically transported to my fingers. 

writing : A mental to-do list. More apartment-cleaning, planning meals for the week, laundry. 

listening : To Mumford and Sons. "Babel" usually soothes me and wraps me in feelings of contentment. I also tend to sing along, which always makes me happy. Being in Starbucks, I also have the hustle-and-bustle of the city in the background. Nothing like Inauguration weekend in DC, that's for sure!

thinking : Not so much thinking as dreaming. I've been in my head a lot lately, in both good and bad ways. Must get out, physically and mentally. 

smelling :  Coffee. Rich, delicious coffee.

wishing :  That I had an easy solution to ongoing financial stressors. The hubs and I are poor grad students, and that won't change for a few more months. We'll still be grad students, but slightly less poor. I know it's worth it in the end, but I just really want to be able to afford to pay off my student loans. And my rent. Wah!

hoping :  That the hubs wants to do some outside beer drinking with me later this afternoon. I just want to stay outside when it's warm out!

wearing :  Bright blue pants from J Crew Factory, my favorite college t-shirt, and a bright blue scarf that smells like vanilla. Bright colors tend to pull me out of my mental funks, and today is no exception. 

loving :  My city. I know I've been writing about this a lot lately, but walking the streets of my tourist-laden neighborhood, I am reminded of how it is really very cool that I live here, especially on weekends like this. While I don't think I will trek down to the Mall for the Inauguration tomorrow, it's still really awesome to be here for an event like this. Politics aside, there is something to be said for witnessing major moments in history that just happen to be in your backyard. DC, you have really captured my heart. 

wanting : To be embarking on our international travels, snapping away on a nice camera, and watching sunsets with the hubs. I have a serious case of wanderlust.

needing : To get back on a consistent schedule. Staying up too late, sleeping in too late, and sitting in basically the same spot for four hours is not doing anything for my self-care. 

feeling :  More at peace. If I had answered this this morning, I would have said that I was feeling sad, uneasy, and agitated. Thankfully, I have booted that out the door and am feeling happy, productive, and alive. Very alive. 

clicking :  On the Sunday Currently! This has very quickly become my favorite link-up, and I love reading everyone's posts and discovering new bloggers. I'm very new on the blogging scene, but this link-up makes me excited to be here and starting this journey.

And on that note.... link up with Lauren!

100 Best Novels: Tender is the Night

F. Scott Fitzgerald is hereby declared the master of the romantic tragedy. Is this a grand, sweeping statement? Absolutely. For sure, there are many other writers who hold their own in this category, but after finishing Tender is the Night, I was reminded why Fitzgerald makes me swoon, seriously swoon. It's not just that he writes against the backdrop of the Jazz Age, though that certainly helps. It's not even because Jay Gatsby is so tragically flawed and makes me want to run along the beaches of Long Island's North Shore reaching out to green lights across the bay. Fitzgerald had the gift of spinning characters who captivate you and make you wish that they could come to life and glance your way so that you could experience the warm thrill of being known by them. These characters are an enigma in so many ways, but as you get to know them, you learn their terrible secrets, and you are a bit shocked and repulsed at first, but ultimately your heart aches at their demise because deep down, you loved them. They were terrible and lovely, and you loved them despite that, or perhaps because of that. It's not always clear.

It's maybe not surprising that I've always loved tragedies more than comedies. Happy endings are great, and I certainly hope that my own life has more laughter than sadness, but when it comes to literature, I am hooked by a plot that punches you in the gut and leaves you wanting more. There's a beauty to flawed characters that is just so captivating to me. Tender is the Night was no exception in this regard. The story of the glamorous, desirable Nicole and Dick Diver is at first reminiscent of Nick Carraway entering the world of Jay Gatsby. We have the young 18-year-old Rosemary who discovers the Divers' world while vacationing on the French Riviera and falls in love with Dick. Soon, however, as the narrative shifts from Rosemary's lovestruck perspective, we learn that the Divers' world is not all glamour.

(Some spoilers below!)

As the story unfolds, it grows darker. More and more we see that the power differentials between various couples (Dick and Nicole, Dick and Rosemary, Mary and Abe, just to name a few) are slowly shifting, with sad, pathetic Dick growing more and more destructive as Rosemary thrives in her acting career and Nicole recovers from her schizophrenia relapse. There are a few moments where, in the face of Dick's shattering of the illusion of him as all-powerful, it is suggested that perhaps it was all a fantasy to begin with. Perhaps, Dick's business partner muses, he never thought highly of Dick at all.

I think what made me so sad about Dick's ending is that it was just so pathetic. He fizzled out. There was no dramatic flourish before he exited the world. Instead, he faded into obscurity. Even his attempt to grasp at the shadow of his charming self with Mary North before leaving the Riviera ends flatly. He seems to give up on it with a laugh, as though he realizes that to resume that persona would be a joke. Why bother? Nicole moves on without him, and Dick becomes nothing more than a fuzzy rumor. Part of me wants to believe that Dick, freed from his obligation to Nicole, was able to live more simply and find happiness. Maybe once he no longer had to play the role of husband doctor, he could let go of the magnificent facade he used to live behind and choose a different life, rather than having it yanked away from him. His final scene with Mary makes me think that at least part of him made the choice to walk away. If he really wanted to stay, he could have put on a marvelous show.

While Dick certainly charmed me, even at his lowest moments, I felt quite differently about Nicole. I started off feeling lukewarm about her and then was very angry with her at the end. It was upsetting to me that she left Dick after all he had done for her. How could she have an affair with Tommy when Dick so clearly needed help of his own? Then I thought about how they had both changed so much and how in reality, nobody should stay in a relationship out of a sense of obligation alone. Ultimately, Nicole couldn't stay with Dick, not after what they had both become. In some ways, she was stronger than him by the end, yet still unable (or maybe unwilling) to be his caretaker as he had been for her. Still, as a I realized when I reread the last couple of pages, I don't think her fate was as rosy as she might have wished. As she goes to rise to see Dick on the beach, she is pulled down by Tommy, suggesting that just as Dick had started as her guardian and caretaker, Tommy would also retain the power in their new relationship. Even recovered, Nicole doesn't get to control her actions, or maybe even her fate.

It's impossible to read this book without thinking of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's personal lives. It made me think that Scott was committed to Zelda and didn't want to leave her side, even when her illness must have put considerable strain on their relationship. Even so, both of them had affairs, and Scott turned to alcohol-- they were both fairly destructive. It's sad to think that he may have viewed himself as a Dick Diver of sorts, doomed to pathetic failure, unable to produce anything of worth. I hope that at the end of his life he was able to view himself as stronger than that.

There are so many other things to say about the themes in this book. Destruction, war, wasted potential, youth... there are multiple threads that reinforce the structure and progression of this novel. Overall, I thought it all made for a lovely read. Tender is the Night is gripping, and even when I didn't particularly care for some of the characters, I still felt invested in their stories. Fitzgerald is one of those writers who invokes a flutter of excitement within me, and this book didn't let me down. Well done, Mr. Fitzgerald.

What are your thoughts on Tender is the Night?

Who else could compete for the title of master of romantic tragedy?

***
100 Best Novels

1. "Ulysses," James Joyce

2. "The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," James Joyce

4. "Lolita," Vladimir Nabokov

5. "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley

6. "The Sound and the Fury," William Faulkner

7. "Catch-22," Joseph Heller

8. "Darkness at Noon," Arthur Koestler

9. "Sons and Lovers," D. H. Lawrence

10. "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck

11. "Under the Volcano," Malcolm Lowry

12. "The Way of All Flesh," Samuel Butler

13. "1984," George Orwell

14. "I, Claudius," Robert Graves

15. "To the Lighthouse," Virginia Woolf

16. "An American Tragedy," Theodore Dreiser

17. "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," Carson McCullers

18. "Slaughterhouse Five," Kurt Vonnegut

19. "Invisible Man," Ralph Ellison

20. "Native Son," Richard Wright

21. "Henderson the Rain King," Saul Bellow

22. "Appointment in Samarra," John O' Hara

23. "U.S.A." (trilogy), John Dos Passos

24. "Winesburg, Ohio," Sherwood Anderson

25. "A Passage to India," E. M. Forster

26. "The Wings of the Dove," Henry James

27. "The Ambassadors," Henry James

28. "Tender Is the Night," F. Scott Fitzgerald

29. "The Studs Lonigan Trilogy," James T. Farrell

30. "The Good Soldier," Ford Madox Ford

31. "Animal Farm," George Orwell

32. "The Golden Bowl," Henry James

33. "Sister Carrie," Theodore Dreiser

34. "A Handful of Dust," Evelyn Waugh

35. "As I Lay Dying," William Faulkner

36. "All the King's Men," Robert Penn Warren

37. "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," Thornton Wilder

38. "Howards End," E. M. Forster

39. "Go Tell It on the Mountain," James Baldwin

40. "The Heart of the Matter," Graham Greene

41. "Lord of the Flies," William Golding

42. "Deliverance," James Dickey

43. "A Dance to the Music of Time" (series), Anthony Powell

44. "Point Counter Point," Aldous Huxley

45. "The Sun Also Rises," Ernest Hemingway

46. "The Secret Agent," Joseph Conrad

47. "Nostromo," Joseph Conrad

48. "The Rainbow," D. H. Lawrence

49. "Women in Love," D. H. Lawrence

50. "Tropic of Cancer," Henry Miller

51. "The Naked and the Dead," Norman Mailer

52. "Portnoy's Complaint," Philip Roth

53. "Pale Fire," Vladimir Nabokov

54. "Light in August," William Faulkner

55. "On the Road," Jack Kerouac

56. "The Maltese Falcon," Dashiell Hammett

57. "Parade's End," Ford Madox Ford

58. "The Age of Innocence," Edith Wharton

59. "Zuleika Dobson," Max Beerbohm

60. "The Moviegoer," Walker Percy

61. "Death Comes to the Archbishop," Willa Cather

62. "From Here to Eternity," James Jones

63. "The Wapshot Chronicles," John Cheever

64. "The Catcher in the Rye," J. D. Salinger

65. "A Clockwork Orange," Anthony Burgess

66. "Of Human Bondage," W. Somerset Maugham

67. "Heart of Darkness," Joseph Conrad

68. "Main Street," Sinclair Lewis

69. "The House of Mirth," Edith Wharton

70. "The Alexandria Quartet," Lawrence Durrell

71. "A High Wind in Jamaica," Richard Hughes

72. "A House for Ms. Biswas," V. S. Naipaul

73. "The Day of the Locust," Nathaniel West

74. "A Farewell to Arms," Ernest Hemingway

75. "Scoop," Evelyn Waugh

76. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," Muriel Spark

77. "Finnegans Wake," James Joyce

78. "Kim," Rudyard Kipling

79. "A Room With a View," E. M. Forster

80. "Brideshead Revisited," Evelyn Waugh

81. "The Adventures of Augie March," Saul Bellow

82. "Angle of Repose," Wallace Stegner

83. "A Bend in the River," V. S. Naipaul

84. "The Death of the Heart," Elizabeth Bowen

85. "Lord Jim," Joseph Conrad

86. "Ragtime," E. L. Doctorow

87. "The Old Wives' Tale," Arnold Bennett

88. "The Call of the Wild," Jack London

89. "Loving," Henry Green

90. "Midnight's Children," Salman Rushdie

91. "Tobacco Road," Erskine Caldwell

92. "Ironweed," William Kennedy

93. "The Magus," John Fowles

94. "Wide Sargasso Sea," Jean Rhys

95. "Under the Net," Iris Murdoch

96. "Sophie's Choice," William Styron

97. "The Sheltering Sky," Paul Bowles

98. "The Postman Always Rings Twice," James M. Cain

99. "The Ginger Man," J. P. Donleavy

100. "The Magnificent Ambersons," Booth Tarkington

Pittsburgh, Part 2

After thoroughly enjoying the view of Pittsburgh's downtown skyline at night, I knew that I needed to see it up close during the daytime. Although I was leaving the city in the afternoon, I decided to spend the morning walking around downtown and seeing what the city had to offer. I started in Point State Park, which is along the riverside and features Three Rivers, the point where the Allegheny and Monogahela Rivers converge to form the Ohio River. Although it wasn't terribly early when I headed down there, the park was nearly completely empty, my only companions being the geese who were resting in the grass.

It was a little cool out that morning, but still warm enough to walk around with my coat open. There was a cute café seating area that must be nice during warmer months. Even with the quiet and lack of people, I could easily envision this park being lively in the summertime.

After walking through an underpass, you can check out the Fort Pitt Museum and the Fort Pitt Blockhouse. I decided to bypass those and head straight for the riverfront. 

Since I was the only person who seemed to be going for a morning stroll along the riverfront, I found it very peaceful and serene. The rain from the day before lingered in the damp air, and fog was slowly rolling over the water. I enjoyed the solitude of the environment, and while I would love to sit on one of the riverside benches with a book on a sunny day, there is something to be said for the quiet. A sunny day would attract crowds, which would change the experience. Not in a necessarily bad way, just different.

Three Rivers

There is a large fountain at the point where the three rivers meet, but it unfortunately is under construction until the summer, so I wasn't able to see the fountain or go to the very tip. Even so, I thought the view was spectacular!

After getting my fill of the riverside, I decided to head over to Market Square, which is basically just a town square. On my walk over, I kept looking up at PPG Place, a building that is striking both in its height and its architecture-- it looks like a mirrored castle! I think it is my favorite part of the Pittsburgh skyline, and I was excited to see it up close on my walk. Market Square was quiet on this particular Saturday morning, and I loved the contrast of the short brick buildings from earlier days alongside impressive structures like PPG Place. It's both quaint and modern, and it seemed to capture the spirit of Pittsburgh pretty well. 

Christmas tree and ice skating rink at PPG Place

Market Square

Shortly after, I had to head back to my hotel to meet my airport shuttle so that I could return home to the hubs. Pittsburgh definitely wasn't the depressed steel and mining town I had expected, and I was delighted to have enjoyed the city and my time there. Given my short stay, there was a lot that I missed out on, but the things that I did see were great, and I felt very content to just walk around and see what the city is like. I certainly wouldn't mind returning to see other parts of the city with the hubs!

Pittsburgh, Part 1

My interview adventures brought me to Pittsburgh last week, a city that I had heard good things about but that remained in my mind a crumbling, smoky, steel town. I was excited to explore a new city, nervous about doing it on my own, and unsure what the experience would ultimately be like. As the airport shuttle drove me to my hotel, I was amazed by the stunning view of Pittsburgh's downtown lit up at night, and I knew that I was in for a good time.

I had an afternoon interview, so I made sure to maximize my free morning by hitting the pavement and walking around the neighborhood surrounding the University of Pittsburgh campus. It was starting to rain, so I had to cut my walk short, but I was able to enjoy the beautiful buildings, the most striking of which was the Cathedral of Learning. I admit that I felt pretty self-conscious snapping away on my camera in front of all the Pitt students (I hate looking like a tourist), but once I started, I felt more at ease and embraced my visitor status.

The William Pitt Student Union

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum

After my interview, I decided to go for a short walk near my hotel to try to get some shots of the sunset. Unfortunately, I wasn't at the best angle, but these couple of shots give you an idea of how nice it can be to see a setting sun through tree branches. Quite lovely!

Later that evening, I took a funicular up the Duquesne Incline to experience the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline at night. It's $5 for a roundtrip adult ticket, and the car has windows all around so that everyone can get a decent view. I was the only one on my car, which was a bit creepy, but I was relieved to see that there were other folks up top checking out the view.

The view was really beautiful. I saw quite a few couples cuddling as they looked out at the skyline, and I think this would be a cute stop for a date night. Since I was solo, I at first was focused on finding the right camera setting for a good photo, but I reminded myself to put the camera away after a while so I could just appreciate the view. 

My first photo attempt from the overlook. I know it's very blurry, but I like the abstract look of it, anyway. :)

Much better!

This time with the Three Points in the lower left.

Since I didn't want to just take the funicular back down after a few minutes, I decided to walk around the neighborhood. There are a few restaurants that capitalize on the view of the river of skyline, as well as several houses. I walked along until I found a break in the buildings and took a few photos of the skyline from a different angle. It was nice to go for a solo stroll, and even though it was dark out, I felt safe walking around with my camera.

The view from down the road

By this point, I was feeling a bit chilly, so I decided it was time to head back down the funicular. I was glad that I had made the trip up the mountainside, as there really is something beautiful about gazing down at bright lights and their reflections in the river. 

The view was a far cry from the podunk, rundown steel town I had originally envisioned. As I would find out the next morning, downtown Pittsburgh had its own special charm to offer...

The Sunday Currently : 2

I'm feeling particularly tired this Sunday morning. Yesterday turned out to involve a nearly full day of travel as I came back from Pittsburgh. After a flight delay, a missed train from Baltimore to DC, and a broken metro escalator, I was wiped out by the time I actually made it home. Despite this, I somehow ended up staying up past midnight when I really should have hit the sack a bit earlier. I slept in late this morning and am now trying to piece together the day so that I feel rested yet productive. Oh, Sunday.

currently

reading : Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love this book!! I've temporarily given up on Those are Real Bullets (don't worry, I'll go back to it), and reading this book reminds me of how much I love/adore/swoon for good literature. I'm hoping to finish reading this one today, but it might also be nice to draw it out a bit longer. 

writing : Thank you notes for past interviews. I also need to answer a few e-mails that have been piling up in my in box. I just wrapped up a couple of posts on my recent trip to Pittsburgh that I'm excited to share this week!

listening : To Gossip Girl season 2 in the background. Also the sound of cars driving on wet pavement outside, which is always soothing.

thinking : Of future adventures! The hubs and I still need to book hotels for our honeymoon, which means planning our itinerary and thinking of how we want to spend our time. I think my parents are also planning a family trip to France over the summer for my dad's birthday, which would be lots of fun. 

smelling : My favorite Mrs. Meyers snickerdoodle candle. It's sweet, but not sickeningly so, and it instantly relaxes me. I need to stock up on these so I can enjoy it for years to come.

wishing : That it were summertime! The episode of Gossip Girl that I'm half-watching is one of the Hamptons episodes, which of course makes me think of the beach and how much I would love to be lounging in a bikini right now. 

hoping : That I will make the right decision when it comes to ranking the sites where I've interviewed. Truthfully, I am really stressed about this!

wearing : Leggings and one of the hubs' flannel shirts. This year I fell in love with J Crew flannel button-downs, but unfortunately the ones I love are no longer in stock. To remedy this, I've taken to raiding the hubs' side of the closet. :)

loving : Being at home. Even though I had a great time in Pittsburgh, I missed the hubs.

wanting : To learn more about photography. I've been having so much fun playing with the hubs' camera, and I'd really like to have a better understanding of all the different settings. He's been toying with the idea of a major camera upgrade, which would be very fun, but I'd like to know how to use it properly.

needing : Some breakfast. Or lunch at this point. I'm moving in slow-motion this morning and haven't progressed past my orange juice. 

feeling : Restless. I need to settle back in to being at home.

clicking : On The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and The Lydia Bennet. They're modern-day, YouTube vlogging-style adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, and I love them! 

Link up!

Earl Grey Carrot Muffins

The time has come for another recipe! One of my New Year's resolutions was to make something from every cookbook the hubs and I own. I decided to start with one of the books that I had never even opened before. The hubs and I have a collection of vegan cookbooks, partly because I used to be vegan (now just vegetarian) and partly because the hubs subscribes to a book service that sends him random books every month or so. The end result is several vegan cookbooks that are, shall we say, underloved.

Vegan recipes have the potential to be kind of gross. Tofu can be boring after a while, and if I'm being honest, I think that fake cheese tastes like plastic. However, there are lots of great vegan and vegetarian recipes that taste fresh and flavorful, and even my meat-loving husband agrees that they are satisfying and delicious. Since I don't like to cook with meat and can't stand the smell of seafood, we end up cooking vegetarian meals about 98% of the time in our house. I was definitely up for the challenge of finding a new vegan dish to experiment with.

Maybe it was the cold air outside or my desire to have the apartment smell delicious when the hubs came home from his week away in LA, but I decided to bake muffins from Cook, Eat, Thrive: Vegan Recipes from Everyday to Exotic. This is a great cookbook that has a lot of international dishes, from empanadas to cous cous to brioche. I bookmarked a lot of recipes to go back to, but I decided to kick off this set of recipes with muffins. The recipe for Earl Grey carrot muffins sounded intriguing and relatively simple, and since I love Earl Grey as a beverage, I wanted to see how they would turn out when put in a muffin.

*1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
*1 teaspoon Earl Grey tea (powder form- crush in a mortar & pestle or in a coffee grinder)
*1 teaspoon baking powder
*1/2 teaspoon baking soda
*1/4 teaspoon sea salt
*1 cup sugar
*1 cup grated carrots
*1/2 cup water
*1/2 cup vegetable oil

This recipe was simple enough. I heated the oven to 350 and quickly mixed all of the ingredients together. Technically, the book says to separate the ingredients across two bowls, but that has never made sense to me, so I put it all in one large mixing bowl.

I mixed the ingredients just long enough to get rid of any dry clumps and then promptly scooped the mixture into a muffin tin lined with baking cups. The recipe is supposed to yield 12 muffins, but I think I overfilled the muffin cups because I only had enough for 10. Close enough!

After the letting the muffins bake for 20-25 minutes, they were done! These turned out pretty well, and I loved their Earl Grey fragrance. These were also unexpectedly sweet, but this might be because I used sugar in the raw rather than white sugar. The end result was delicious! My only complaint was that the bottom of the baking cups were pretty oily, which I assume was from the vegetable oil. I don't typically like to bake with vegetable oil but since this was a vegan recipe, I couldn't use eggs. If I were to use this recipe again, I think I would substitute the eggs for the oil, but otherwise, I thought these muffins were pretty tasty as is. Yum!

Have any of you tried vegan baking before? What did you think of it?

Project DC: The Lincoln Memorial

Last time I wrote about our visit to the National Air and Space Museum. After our museum adventure, the hubs and I decided to play around with his camera a bit more and walk from the far east end of the Mall near the Capitol all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial at the west end.

There was a bit of rain and snow earlier in the day, but it had all melted by the time we ventured outdoors. Still, the crowds on the Mall were pretty sparse, and as we walked towards the Washington Monument, I thought about how lucky we are that our Saturday evening stroll can include some of the most recognizable, famous structures in our nation and maybe the world. Even if you're not particularly patriotic, that is a pretty amazing feeling. I live here, and I feel so thankful for that.

We stopped at the World War II Memorial along the way. I'm still getting the hang of the hubs' camera and could have used a tripod since it was dark outside by this point, but even without being a pro at nighttime photography, I think this monument is particularly beautiful at night. I've been there during the summer in the daytime, and while it's beautiful then, too, there is something haunting about the way these lights illuminate the columns and how quiet and sad the wreaths seem that rest at their bases. 

Once we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial, we were feeling pretty frozen since neither one of us had worn a hat, gloves, or proper scarf. Still, the view of the monument in the distance, growing larger as we came closer, was enough to make us forget the cold. This monument is my favorite in all of DC, and I was so happy to bring the hubs there for his first time. The views of the Reflecting Pool are beautiful, and the sight of President Lincoln illuminated and framed by the beautiful white columns against the dark night sky is enough to bring tears to my eyes.

I think what I love most about the Lincoln Memorial is that it really does feel like a temple. When you walk inside, you feel tiny next to the giant statue of President Lincoln reclined in his chair. Your voice bounces off the walls. The Gettysburg Address and inauguration speech that are etched into the walls read like a religious doctrine. When you stand before Lincoln, you feel as though you are paying homage to something holy. In some ways, I think you are. I always cry a little when I visit this place because I feel so moved and so connected to it. Even with the crowds, it's possible to stand in a corner and quietly observe what's happening around you, silently absorbing the respect and awe that so many people have for this president. It's a wonderful feeling.

After a while, the hubs and I started the long walk uphill to the metro to return home. It had been a long, cold evening, and I lost feeling in my fingers, but I felt utterly happy. That's the entire point of doing Project DC. I live in a truly great city, and if I don't take the time to enjoy what it has to offer, then I am missing out on a good part of life. If nothing else, this is a way to make sure that my life has more good moments like that evening.

***

Want to read more about having fun in DC? Follow along as I embark on Project DC:

1. Go to the Air and Space Museum.

2. Go for a leisurely hike in Rock Creek Park.

3. Go on a White House tour.

4. Buy DC artwork at Eastern Market.

5. Visit Old Town on a day trip.

6. Take a day trip to Annapolis.

7. Go to the Newseum.

8. Go back to Jazz in the Garden when it starts up again in the spring.

9. Go to the Holocaust Museum.

10. Eat at Ben's Chili Bowl.

11. See the FDR Memorial.

12. Take the hubs to the Lincoln Memorial.

13. Go to the National Portrait Gallery.

14. Go to the Corcoran.

15. Visit the Vietnam Memorial.

16. Go inside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

17. Go to more embassy events.

18. See a show at Rock & Roll Hotel.

19. See the drum circle at Malcolm X Park.

20. Mini golf at H Street Country Club.

21. Evening drinks at POV.