Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Another fine weekend in Washington, DC (although much wetter than previous weekends). I found work last week to be more draining than usual. I've begun working more closely with the outreach social worker and helping her with client intakes/counselling and such. We have one particularly difficult fellow who is very trying. It's definitely interesting work and I admire the social worker so much. She is truly incredible. Anyways, by the weekend I was feeling very drained so spent much of the weekend trying to get some energy back. For me this meant doing some solo activities. On Saturday I went to the National Museum of National History (one of the Smithsonian museums). It is pretty huge. They had a super cool display of precious gems and minerals. I'm not much of a jewelry person but some of the stuff was pretty impressive and amazingly beautiful. It's all been donated to the Smithsonian over the years so now belongs to the American people (must be worth sooo much money). They even had the Hope Diamond on display. Very cool.
Saturday night we (my housemates and I) were invited to a dinner party at the Pielemeier's (a couple from the Volunteer Corps Board). Their daughter (who is my age) was having some friends over so it was a bunch of recent college graduates and the Pielemeier's. It was pretty fun, until the question of "who's your favourite hero in American history?" arose, followed by a 3 hour discussion. Kind of intense but interesting (at least for the first 45 mins ;)
Sunday afternoon I went apple picking with my housemate Katelyn. A first for me. Followed by a baking extravaganza on Sunday night. Applesauce, apple crisp and apple pie. Fresh apples rock! Monday was a holiday here as well (Columbus Day) so I too had a nice long weekend. Monday night my housemates and I decided to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving (minus the turkey). It was so nice. I don't think I've ever gotten so into Thanksgiving prep. It was a lot of fun. And homemade apple pie for dessert! A very good end to what turned out to be a pretty good weekend (minus the rain). Now I'm busy helping with the final preps for a big fundraiser this weekend. I anticipate it will keep me very busy for the rest of the week. Until then...