This is one of the pics we took by the edge of the woods and creek I loved as a seven-year old. I’m posting it and not another, because you can’t tell here that I’ve already gained back half the weight I worked so hard to lose last year.
I’ve heard that something like 95% percent of people who lose weight, regain it within two years.
I am quickly becoming a statistic. darn it.
It started with the girls begging Chad’s brother for a buck, a quarter, a nickel for doing menial chores around the condo in an effort to raise ice cream money – and now the photo “treasure hunts” have become full-fledged obsessive ways for Bella and Dawkins to raise spare cash. And other people, like my brother and Chad’s sister are thinking of their own photo treasure hunts!
Today, after lunch at the club with my parents (I was full for the rest of the day, having tasted everything on the table: apple date bleu cheese date chicken salad, clam chowder, a reuben, and an oyster po’ boy), my parents, the girls, and I went down nostalgia lane attempting to visit every single site on Songbae’s treasure hunt list. The places, which all involve his and my childhood ranged throughout Fairfax, Virginia; Washington D.C.; and Rockville, Bethesda, and Potomac, Maryland.
As my brother stated in his challenge, the girls get a dollar a piece for taking a picture of the listed location. They get an additional dollar if they are able to coerce somebody from that location (he didn’t make it clear if that somebody could be random person walking by, or if it had to be somebody actually associated with that location) to be in the photo as well.
Here is Songbae’s list and the pics we took today:
1. where i first made pizza in glen echo.
See, in this photo I asked this group of boys to join the photo because they were standing around waiting for something. The actual pizza joint (did it used to be called Good Guys?) looked like it had closed down, but I didn’t check that closely because we were in such a rush to get to our next destination. So, I don’t get it – do Bella and Dawkins each get $1? And then split the third dollar for having “somebody from the location” in the picture?
2. where andrew brady and i pumped gas in potomac.
It’s a different gas station now, but, coincidentally, the guy working there had been there 21 years. He said the name Andrew Brady rang a bell, but not David Lee. He couldn’t leave his computer, so he agreed to an indoor photo.
3. where jeannie, sue and i graduated high school.
Good golly! Walt Whitman High School didn’t look anything like this twenty-one years ago when I graduated. They must’ve razed the old building, because I could not find one damn familiar thing. Well, that’s a lie: there was some great artwork lining the walls of the school’s corridors, which looked very much like the work of Walt Bartman’s art students, and the new stadium is named after our old principal, Dr. Jerome Marcos (with whom my brother had many, many discussions…) The guy standing with us is the basketball coach, Coach Lun, who very agreeably posed with the girls. As my mother pointed out, he doesn’t look old enough to hold a job (she’s always saying something, isn’t she?)
4. drinking slurpees at 7-11 on river road.
I’d like to note, that I was not as familiar with this 7-11 as my brother and sister were, simply because I didn’t cut class as much as they did.
5. 7 dons mill court. if they get someone who lives there in the picture, extra $5.
This is the second home my parents ever owned, the first house – and really the place where I felt I grew up. We used to play flashlight tag HARD all summer night long, and my friend’s dog was named Bo (after Bo Derek). The girls rang and rang the doorbell but nobody was home. They were sorely disappointed as this was their one chance for getting a bonus five dollars.
We did have a chance to drive by the best sledding hill I know, Monument Hill in Rockville. (and Laura, I almost had the car convinced we should stop in on your dad…)
6. park street elementary. Doesn’t exist anymore
7. hungerford park. Doesn’t exist anymore.
8. where jeannie and sue waited tables in white flint mall.
The Perfect Cup closed down long ago and the entire “cafe” alley that used to be paved with bricks on the lower floor of White Flint Mall has been renovated with a Bertucci’s and Cheesecake Factory. I had the girls stand where the entrance of the Perfect Cup used to be – that’s where I brewed many an espresso.
We included a photo with the hostess in case it counted. At this point, we needed a break from the treasure hunt, so my parents napped in the car while I bought a pair of shorts on sale at Banana Republic.
9. our townhouse in perry penny drive.
This is the first home my parents ever owned: a cute little townhouse in Fairfax. We lived there for two years, and I attended first and second grade just across the street at Columbia Elementary. I have great memories of this place as our tiny backyard opened up to a creek full of minnows and crayfish and a large woods, one that I was barely brave enough to cross by the time we moved. The woman who lives there now (in the picture! does this count for the extra $5?) says she doesn’t let her kids go back there. The “worst” thing I ever saw in those woods was a black guy kissing a white girl. I was six years old, had never known a black person, and that scene blew my mind. They must have been teenagers – and they looked like they were in heavenly love. Hey, come to think of it, I only remember knowing white folks in that neighborhood – were there any other minorities besides us?
10. with rob lange and sasha his daughter. Haven’t had the chance for this one yet – maybe this weekend.
The day was bookended by another delicious meal out – this time for chachang myun. For those who aren’t up on their Korean-Chinese cuisine, that’s black bean paste sauce on homemade noodles: a Chinese version of spaghetti my mother always calls it.
And of course, there were all kinds of side trips to places that were completely impromptu – like our visit to my dad’s mother’s grave site.
I call that a full day. Boy, I am pooped. YOU try keeping up with my folks.
Turns out that Amtrak train tickets from Washington D.C. Union Station (WAS) to NY Penn Station (NYP) are more expensive than I remember: $200 one-way – although that may be more a consequence of my lack of prior planning. Luckily, we can still hop on cheap chinatown buses to NYC for $25 each.
I thought I had posted this recipe long ago – but I guess I haven’t. This sauce is a must for ice cream lovers and only takes five ingredients and five minutes to make from scratch. The story goes that each of the three children in my brother-in-law’s family learned to make a different sauce:Â butterscotch, toffee fingers, and chocolate. Chocolate sauce is the handiest and I bet the most popular. Bella made it herself tonight – successfully!
The sauce is flexible and depending on the amount of ingredients and temperature cooked, the sauce is sometimes chewy, other times it hardens when it hits the ice cream.
Chocolate Sauce a la Joss
You need: cocoa powder, sugar, water, vanilla, and butter.
Not that I thought about it that much, but I was a teeny bit relieved to head for the east coast after weeks and weeks of packing, moving, and unpacking – but now I’ve discovered that my parents (who moved two months ago) need LOTS of help unpacking. I realized yesterday that I was actually in a much better position moving from a 1,100 square foot house to a 2,000 square foot foot condo than my folks who are moving from a 5,400 square foot home to a 3,400 square foot condo.
While I’m still getting rid of lots of stuff as I unpack, even furniture, there is still a sensation of expansion as we settle into the new place. My poor mom on the other hand, who has boxes upon boxes of things accumulated from a family of five – without any regard to conserving space – now has to trim about three roomfuls of STUFF out of her life. I say “poor,” but how sorry can you feel for somebody who moves from six walk-in closets to three? (I’m just guessing at numbers of closets here – if I stop and actually count closets I will be too mortified to post the real numbers.) There is not even enough room in the new house for the mountains of boxes they brought; and this is after they hired somebody who spent two days carting away things from the old house before the move.
It’s difficult going. She’s handing Sue and I crystal bowls like hot potatoes, and passing along whole sets of dishes – still we’ve barely made a dent. We did manage to empty the garage enough to fit her car and the golf cart yesterday though, and we’re proud of that. Dad made a Herculean run this morning to the thrift store and we’re filling boxes for the next run.
The upside to being here as they’re just moving in: lots of firsts to celebrate. We ate in the formal dining room for the first time last night and Joss cooked up a scrumptious chicken roast with plenty of roasted garlic, scallions, parsnips, and potatoes. We roasted the bones afterwards to make soup for today. For dessert, Bella made (is learning to make) chocolate sauce from scratch under Joss’ close tutelage.
In any case, helping somebody ELSE move, haranguing somebody ELSE to get rid of clutter is still a sight easier than getting rid of your own.
The day we arrived I received an email from Chad’s brother challenging Bella and Dawkins to a Washington D.C. treasure hunt. The first treasure hunt a year or so ago involved actions like taking a picture of “a large lady walking a small dog” (they didn’t get credit for that one because the lady was carrying her dog) and “taking a picture with a celebrity” (we were in Beverly Hills for the day and the girls took a picture with Priscilla Presley, but mistakenly called her ‘Liv Tayler’) and earned the girls a paltry 25 cents for each task completed.
The D.C. treasure hunt tasks involve less celebrity and fat lady hunting and more civil war and local history awareness, which perfectly matches the area we are in (Leesburg is not far – there are many confederate monuments in Virginia – and D.C. is a 1/2 hour drive away). We got three of the tasks accomplished in old town Alexandria, Virginia today. Here is the email in full:
“Pictures must be exactly as I specify or they won’t count. Each item is worth $1. If you get them all thats $5 each.
Dawkins-
1) Picture of Dawkins at the US Grant memorial (its in front of the Capital)
2) Picture of Dawkins wearing 1 shoe in front of the Lincoln memorial
3) Picture of a bird sitting on any recognizable/famous Washington memorial
Bella-
1) Picture of Bella giving a thumbs up in front of the Lincoln statue at the Lincoln memorial
2) Picture of Bella jumping with the Washington monument in the background
3) Picture of something related to the civil war (excluding the Lincoln or US Grant memorials)
Both Bella and Dawkins
1) Picture of both giving the “tiger 5†in front of a picture, sculpture or statue of a tiger (a lion is acceptable)
2) Picture of both of you with Songbae
Bonus: (1 for Dawkins and 1 for Bella)
1) Picture of any memorial/building/street with the name Madison or Jefferson
2) Picture of either or both standing in front of Fords theatre or the Smithsonian”
Just got back from spending the day with the folks and the brother-in-law watching the AT & T National golf tournament, which was hosted by Tiger Woods. Apparently my dad got four free tickets from UBC, the company that manages (some) of his finances.
There were some terrific advantages to being guests of a sponsoring company. First of all, we got to park at Avenel and shuttled to the Norwood School which is directly across River Road from Congressional Country Club, which happens to be one of the older, more prestigious country clubs in the area. Second of all, there was an air-conditioned tent with a balcony overlooking the 18th hole: endless free drinks and pretty good food (Greek salad, cut flank steak served with garlic mayo, tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad) went a long way towards making an entire day spent outdoors under a 95 degree sun more bearable. Plus at the end of the day, the balcony was relatively empty compared to the hundreds of spectators lining the edge of the greens 10-20 people thick once the big players started finishing up at the 18th hole.
Now I don’t know much about golf, having never played, but my dad set about educating me as we strolled down the main entrance road of the club. A golf course has 18 holes, which generally stretches out over 4-5 miles. From what I understand, when the course is built it is played by a professional, who establishes the standard number of strokes it takes to get the ball in the hole; if a player matches that number of strokes it’s called “par.” A typical course includes at least four 3-par holes, four 4-par holes, and four 5-par holes, and the par for a course is usually 72.
The course at Congressional CC has two less 5-par holes than normal, making the par for the course 70, which is more difficult. If a player gets a ball in the hole one stroke under par, it is called a birdie: good and not uncommon, especially for pros. If a player gets a ball in the hole two strokes under par, it is called an eagle: excellent and much less common. A hole-in-one is so exciting that unspoken golf etiquette calls for the player to buy drinks for everybody at the bar. Considering that a hole can be 174 to 602 yards away from the putting square – hitting a hole-in-one is quite a feat. (My dad has hit two hole-in-ones in his life.) Didn’t see any of those today – but saw a few birdies and missed one eagle when I went in search of lemon icees.
The object in golf is to get the lowest score possible. If a player hits par on every hole, his/her score is “0” or “E” for even. If a player gets the ball in under par, his/her score goes into the negative digits, and today, Appleby played a -9! Choi played a -7, (we watched both play the 18th hole) and Tiger scored a -2 (his first child was born just three weeks ago – no wonder he’s preoccupied.)
Congressional CC is exceptionally beautiful, the kind of place where you regularly see wild deer, fox, geese, and heron. Potomac, where the club is located, is made up of rolling hills and lots of wooded areas and dotted with ponds and lakes, so every once in a while I would get a bird’s eye view of the tournament. The whole affair was like a large, stately and quiet state fair. I could see long organized lines of people crisscrossing the greens, hiking towards their next destination. The crowd was surprisingly young (30’s and 40’s) and surprisingly ethnically diverse. Having grown up in this area and having visited several of the country clubs over the years, I can assuredly say that I saw more people of color in one place than I ever have before in Potomac. This, I believe, is an intended result of Tiger Woods’ promotion of this event.
And Tiger Woods. Despite the fact that my mother said he looked like an ordinary man and that his head was smaller in real life than she expected; and despite the fact that he nearly didn’t make the cut for the competition (players had to be in the top 75 by the end of the second day; the first day he came in 77th, but came in 12th on the second – today was the third day of the tournament); Tiger was definitely the highlight, not only for me, but for pretty much everybody else as well – as evidenced by the mass exodus of more than half the crowd when he had finished playing. The excitement whenever Tiger was near was palpable; people burst into spontaneous clapping and cheering whenever he approached, regardless of how he had been playing. And all day long, no matter where we went, we could hear people whispering, “Tiger this, and Tiger that.” Really, the buzz and crowds were all about Tiger.
We had the good fortune to see Tiger as soon as we entered the club grounds as he was practicing on the driving range right by the entrance. He was across the street and we were up on a hill and had a good view of his shots. As I imagined that there would be hordes of people around him whenever he played (I was right), I figured that this would be my one good view of him for the day. It turns out that golf celebrities, while still requiring armed security, are more accessible than I thought. We got another great view of Tiger on the 16th hole when his ball landed directly under our bleachers. Then later, when we started to make our way over to the next hole, we were suddenly blocked by ropes. The players were headed our way. Tiger was coming! Tiger and his caddy (did you know that caddies make up to 10% of the prize money? and that they give the players advice?) passed within a foot of me! I was cheering and clapping along with the rest of the golf fools – but he kept his eyes straight ahead and stayed focused. We saw him again when he played the 18th hole and we were recharging with iced tea and cheese and crackers. Smooth player. Some say that he may be the greatest sportsperson in history – not the greatest golfer, the greatest athlete ever.
All in all, I have to say that I enjoyed myself and got some good exercise today. It was much, much less boring than I had anticipated, and as my mother exclaimed on our way out, “It was FUN and GOOD EAT!”
I ditched my new husband and my new house to come and hang out on the east coast for two weeks is to spend more time nuzzling my new niece, Nabi Grace.
Of course, I can’t refuse my father when he gives me a ticket to watch Tiger Woods play today in a golf tournament at Congressional Country Club (where I once valet parked cars). Watching golf sounds incredibly boring, but my mother assures me that there is lots of walking involved and the extreme overgrowth of greenery everywhere in this humid climate has me ah-ga-ga. My eyes are just soaking it up. Bella and Dawkins will hang with my sister today. They’re all downstairs in the kitchen at the moment eating toasted bagels with goat cheese.
My god, it’s been so long since I’ve been on my computer that I have half-forgotten how to get around on it. And even though I have been writing posts nigh near continuously in my head, now that I am sitting in front of the keyboard I hardly know what to say.
It has been a very full two weeks tying up my single life and starting my married life – and just to clarify, I feel like I just got married for the first time – and not in the Madonna like-a virgin-touched-for-the very-first time way, but actually married for the first time. I don’t count my marriage to Bella’s dad for these reasons:
1. Neither of us believed in the institution of marriage – we were very counter-establishment at the time, and beyond that, neither of us believed that we would stay together for a particularly long time.
2. We only got legally married in case of medical catastrophe (to avoid possible worst case scenarios at the hospital when they won’t let girlfriends in).
3. A woman down the street married us over our kitchen counter.
4. Neither Bella’s dad nor I put an ounce of thought into what we were saying or what we were doing; indeed, Bella’s dad’s favorite saying in the context of marriage was, “Run for the hills!â€
5. The woman who married us insisted I put on a dress for the ceremony. She swore that I would regret it forever if I didn’t. She was wrong and I subsequently gave that dress away.
6. We had a witness only because a friend had dropped by unexpectedly that day.
7. No family attended the ceremony – in fact, I don’t know if or when I let them know what we had done.
8. No rings were exchanged. At one point we briefly toyed with the idea of getting rings tattooed on our fingers.
9. There was no celebration of any kind that I can remember.
10. And the clincher: Our marriage certificate was printed on a photocopied image of a doily.
So, yes, we were legally married and I had to get a legal divorce (and split everything 50/50), but there was never a real wedding – or a real marriage for that matter.
My relationship and marriage to Chad operates so much at the opposite end of the spectrum that I can’t even bring myself to write about it in the same post.
