peep show

Every year the Washington Post holds a "Peeps" diorama competition where folks create scenes using everyone's favorite marshmallow chicks and bunnies . I actually find peeps sort of disgusting to eat, so I'm all about using them as visual art. The titles were cleverest of all, many of them referencing DC inside jokes:

*Where the Wild Peeps Are
*Peepocalypse: Dupont Circle Snowball Fight (a riff off DC's "snowpocalypse", during which there was a huge citywide snowball fight in Dupont Circle)
*White House Party Peepers (a riff off the random White House state dinner crashers)
*Easter at the National Peepthedral: A House of Prayer for all Peeps
*Peepstern Market (a riff off DC's famed Eastern Market)
etc. etc.

Check out the slideshow of entries. The Mad Men one is fantastic!



I often tell people that Washington D.C. was not my first choice when I was looking to move two years ago. But you know, I've really come to love this city. It takes effort to find the cultural enclaves and neighborhoods, but once you do, it's well worth it! It's no New York, but what DC lacks in excitement, it makes up for in charm.

I like this series that the Washington Post also does called "Scene In," not so much for the street fashion (which is pretty underwhelming if you ask me), but for the footage of DC neighborhoods. Check it out when you have a moment and you'll see what I mean about our nation's capital. The people and the scenes are just so charming, charming, charming :)

printgeek

There is nothing I like better than to sit down with page proofs and mark them up. I am indeed one of those nerds who will mark other magazines with copy editing marks when I find typos. I can't leave it! It just has to be done.

I don't have as much editorial say as President Obama, but one day I will, and one day, I will make pages bleed bleed bleed.

(White House Flickr; via James Fallows)

cherry blossom time

It is that time of year in D.C. when all the cherry blossom trees start to bloom. I am so excited! I'm also excited to be running the cherry blossom 10-miler on April 11. I tried to train for it last year and then suffered some serious back pain. I re-trained for the Army 10 miler and now I feel totally fine about running another one.

Predicting the peak blossom time is always a fun sport for Washingtonians. This year, they have predicted that it will be around April 1. That's rather early, if you ask me, but I'm fine with that. I promise lots of photos to come!

I took this photo of the tree in front of my parents house because it sort of looked like a cherry blossom tree. I'm doubtful that it is ... looks more like a plum blossom tree or something ... but it definitely got me in the mood when I saw it two weekends ago!

happy days are here

Two happy photos for your viewing pleasure:
1. Happy coworkers watching the signing of the health-care reform bill in our office;
2. Happy Jeannie wearing a decidedly "spring-y" outfit that imho accomplishes the goals of simplicity and minimalism I wrote about two days ago.

painfully hip

My friend Annie's blog is so hip it hurts.

Alas.

simple, minimal, classic

I engaged in some serious spring cleaning this Saturday and put away all my wool sweaters, tweed skirts, and turtlenecks, and brought out my old summer/spring clothes. I was not too pleased. Why didn't anyone tell me I was dressing like a young'n? Well, no longer. Gone are the paisley prints, baby doll cuts, and flounce skirts. Enter clean, crisp classics. I'm 27, gosh darn it. Time to grow up.

I also had my coloring all wrong. As much as I love earth tones, they tend to wash me out. it's time for bold colors and clean basics.

A source of endless inspiration: Jeana Sohn. I covet her style.

And two style icons in my own family: my cousin Helen, and my sister Uno. Love them. They always look great.

went home, worked on bikes

I went home this past weekend to visit family. It was a really good time for the most part! Uno bought two bikes off of craigslist for $20 each and we worked on fixing them up together. It was sort of hard at first, but after the first bike, you feel like you can fix any bike pretty easily. My dad kept saying, you girls made $100 today ... which is kind of true. If we had dropped the bikes off at a bike shop to get it fixed, it would have cost us $100, or probably more!

Here are some photos of us in perfect SoCal weather, using our elbow grease and riding our hard work :)
**Isn't my sister such a ham? I love her :)

view from your desk chair

my cousin, helen: interior designer, pre-presentation

cute

I have a bit of a crush on M. Ward. I've also known what it's like to crush on someone who doesn't even know you're alive! We've all been there I'm sure. :)

I covet Zooey Deschanel's cuteness.

Alabama, my heart, forever

This past weekend I made a pilgrimage to Alabama to visit several sacred sites from the civil rights movement. I am still trying to process this experience, but will tell you that I have been changed! Not in that church revival sense, but in that, I've seen something that I can't ever erase from my psyche sense. Like the first time you see a naked person. It's there forever. You've passed some rite of maturity, and you can never go back. It was like that.

I've gone to bed each night since returning from the pilgrimage with freedom songs stuck in my head. The images, sights, sounds, and yes, even tastes!, will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Haunt? More like, inspire. This pilgrimage has inspired me towards something new. A new understanding of freedom, justice, redemption, forgiveness, love. All of those trite, hackneyed words that are rubbed raw with abuse in our modern vernacular have all been made new for me.

Here are two posts I've written about the pilgrimage for Sojourners. And below, some footage I shot of the delegation marching across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma while singing "We Shall Overcome," on the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

JAY-Z = EPIC

Last night was EPIC in every sense of the word: going to the Verizon Center, being among so many people with so much energy, and hearing the greatest rapper alive do what he does best ... there are no words. It was such an amazing performance and oddly intimate, even though we were so so far away. Jay-Z puts on a "no frills" concert -- no dancers, no fireworks, just him performing his hits, one after another. He topped himself again and again, which is just so indicative of his incredible career -- he puts out a freaking amazing album, and then it's "on to the next one."

I went a little insane last night when he started my most favorite song of his: heart of the city (ain't no love). My roommate thankfully got some footage of Jay-Z handing it over to the crowd to sing the rest. Nothing beats the sound of thousands singing. Jay-Z put it well at the end: "There's a lot of love in this room."

A lot of love indeed.

You will hear me trying to sing the chorus and failing miserably, but I did not care one damn bit. I'll sing my freaking heart out for Jay.

Cassie and me before the show (photos from Cassie)

With our new friend after the show

mr. and mrs. incredible

My parents are in Israel right now, vacationing and visiting the Holy Lands. Here's what my dad sent me once they landed.

Mon Cher Jeannie.

We are alive and well. Currently, in a Hotel in Amman.

We went to Petra today. Also visited several ancient Edomite and Moabite cities.

We will cross over to Israel tomorrow.

We miss you, Jeannie.

Best wishes for you,

Daddy

Such a lovely letter, no? I think my parents are so incredible. The fact that they both grew up in South Korea, immigrated to the states in their teens (mom) and twenties (dad), obtained advanced degrees (mom: BA, MA; dad: BA, MA, PhD, MDiv), and continue to flourish in a country that was not their first home is astounding to me.

jay to the z

tonight!


Full report TK.

I call this one ...

... nerd love

bowling with "the axe"

Bowling is my least favorite activity in the world, but after this weekend I've had a change of heart. My roommate organized a bowling party at "Lucky Strike" in D.C.'s Chinatown. In the middle of our game, my friend Allison looks over to the lane next to us and says, I think that's David Axelrod. Sure enough, we look up at his scoreboard and it says, "Axe." In D.C., this is a big time celebrity sighting. We are just that pathetic.

Giggles, exchanged glances, nervous attempts to make contact ensued. Alas, the best we could do was take covert photos of him while pretending to take photos of each other (though my roommate did make some small talk with him, as you will see in the photo below). Blast ... the more I think about it, the more I wish we had said something to him. Ah well. What cracks me up is that at the end of this rather important week for the White House, all he wanted to do on Friday night was go bowling (and with this guy, no less!).

This weekend, roommate and I also went on a date to DC glassworks, a glass blowing studio out in Hyattsville, Maryland. It was a sweet little outing, and so cool to watch people make vases and sculptures out of globs of molten glass heated to more than 2,000 degrees!

the "Axe-man" himself! (photo credit: Heather W.)