Weekend in summary...

Friday, the other CF's adn I hosted a Luau for City Hall and the Aston residents. It went over pretty well and a bunch more people than i thought ended up coming out. We had a ton of food, silly outfits and tropical decorations.

Here are the other CF's in my configuration that i've talked about:

l to r: Stephanie, Heath, Spencer, Jessica, Titi, Miki, Jeff (my old supervisor) and Nikki.

These are the first people I really met coming to GW and continue to be some of my favorites... I'm really lucky that I get to work with such fun people.

Friday night was spent basically working obsessively in my journal on this:



Saturday, I met up with Vanessa and Catherine (two girls that I know from the Art therapy department) and we climbed onto the bus and headed to Leesburg, Virginia. First, we headed to some outlet stores... ended up buying stuff i probably can't afford... but got anyways. Found a fun corderoy jacket for twenty bucks- really practical. And based on the weather we've had thus far, the more jackets i have the better. Got a black sweater too. Because. I love black sweaters. It's a problem. Found a pair of jeans too and got a vegetable peeler for a dollar fifty so my carrots can stop mocking me in my inability to eat them. At least I get paid on Friday.

Next, we headed to the Tarara Winery. Interesting fact- the owners called it Tarara because according to the story in Genesis 8 and 9; when the ark came to rest, it was on the mountains of Ararat, where Noah planted a vineyard. Ararat backwards is Tarara. Fun, huh?

Anyways, we tried ten different wines. I really don't know... well... anything about wine, so i learned a lot. I did the whole twirling and sniffing thing... felt very cultured, haha. I'd really never noticed how DIFFERENT wines taste. I really don't like red wines, as it turns out. The Cabernet Sauvignon was the only one i really didn't mind. The Pinot Gris was my favorite, but they have a dessert wine called Wild River Red that was pretty amazing too.

They took us into the cave where they age the wines, and I had fun taking pictures of the barrels, especially the vendor markings they had on them:


They showed us some of the pressing machinery (unfortunately, no Lucy-esque grape stomping):
:

And the last thing we did was take a hayride through the vineyard. Which was probably my favor part. Because, lest us not forget, I'm still five.
Unfortunately, my camera died during the heyride, so i really didn't get any pictures of the vineyard. But we really didn't stop ever, so they probably wouldn't have been that great. Would really like to be able to go to one at some point and jsut wander....

hayride picture:

Vanessa (graduated from RIT, and her family actually owns a winery in Pennsylvania)
Catherine ( was an art history major that's from Little Rock, Arkansaw)
And I'm squinty with busride/hayride hair.

Vanessa in the caves:


Overall, it was a really really fun day. Definitely exhausted when I got back. It was really the first touristy thing i've done since coming to D.C. and it was only fifteen bucks. hard to complain.

Sunday:
For some reason I started feeling really sick at like 7:30 this morning. Didn't exactly make it to church. And woke up still feeling pretty crappy. Lucky for me, both Capitol Hill Baptist and Providence put their sermons online, so I just listened to a sermon at home instead. Like church, just in pajamas ;)
links of interest:
More of my pictures of the luau/winery
Tarara Winery
CHBC sermons
Dave O & the College Class sermons

Prayer requests:
-that i feel better. being sick is nooooo fun.
-Allison is going to Vermont for an extended stay. That she gets the help she needs.
-I need to take school more seriously than I have been.
-I utilize my spare time more effectively

-meredith*

"What do you have that you did not recieve?"