Has it really been a month since I posted?

Random thoughts . . . it's Easter and church was full of flowers and the Hallelujah Chorus . . . today would have been Dwight's mom's 91st birthday. . .overjoyed by a communication with a nephew who is struggling - just a text is better than the Easter Bunny.


We've Been Visited!
After all these months here, it has happened at last.  We were visited by some of our oldest and dearest friends, Gene and Rebecca Kliewer.  We knew each other while pregnant (our daughter and their twin sons are a few months apart), raised our kids in the early years just down the street from one another, attended the same church for a long time, and have shared the craziness of life.  What each of us has been through, the other has witnessed and walked alongside.  
Someone at my women's group said it well when she remarked that when you are around people who know you deeply, you just breathe a little differently.

Monday was snowing so we stayed home and played with the kids.  That felt so comfy and good, even though little Kiyoko was a fussy-pot (a very cute fussy-pot),

Do the right thing, SCOTUS

We spent Tuesday the 26th in the District, leaving our Library of Congress tour to catch the tail end of the Marriage Equality festivities outside of the Supreme Court Building.  The sign in the photo above was snatched from the trash so we could record our support.  A quick lunch and tour of the American Indian Museum was followed by the guys heading to the Air & Space Museum (Dwight's Holy Grail) and the gals to the National Art Gallery where we saw almost too many Italian Masters' renditions of Madonna and Child.  A walkabout of Union Station and dinner at an Irish pub capped off the day.

The Bay Bridge at Sandy Point

Wednesday we went to Sandy Point State Park on the Chesapeake Bay, in our ongoing search for a lovely place to hang out.  Miss those California beaches, I gotta say.

Then it was into Annapolis for a little antiquing and walking around neighborhoods built in the 1700s, dinner at a fish monger, then off to the airport.  They would not give in to my frequent requests to change their tickets and stay longer.

So, if you are reading this and are from California and are thinking about visiting, stop thinking and just buy the plane tickets!!!  We'll pick you up at the airport, plan a great visit around what you would like to see and do.

Does that sound desperate?  No quite desperate, but I could use the easy-breathing.

For you, A, from "Ode to the West Wind" by PB Shelley

Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
 I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.