Oh-Oh-Oh … It’s Thanksgiving.

We-We-We are gonna have a good time.

If you haven't seen this yet, you need to. Because everyone needs to see a little girl sing horribly into a turkey leg once in their lives.

So today is my last day at work before Thanksgiving break and, I must say, it's lovely being able to go through the holiday season without stressing about papers or finals. WONDERFUL. So like, I just get to eat and have fun and not go to work and that's all?! There's nothing else I SHOULD or NEED to be doing, but won't and will beat myself up for it later? What is this.....

Sadly, I won't be gorging myself on as much Thanksgiving food as I normally do: it's normally just a day-long snack fest while watching football and movies with some napping in between to mix things up. (I do normally run in the morning though!) No, this Thanksgiving I will be a little more cautious as I had the stomach flu last week and have not been feeling 100% since. I pretty much have the world's most sensitive stomach on a good day, so Thursday I will probably enjoy cooking for others more than I will sampling everything-even-the-questionable-stuff.

This past week, my friend Adam's band also released the first single off their upcoming album, CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH! It is seriously amazing stuff. Adam is so talented and I can't wait until the whole album comes out next year, just in time for spring break road trip playslists!! YES! You should check out his song and then buy it on itunes. Support local artists, for realz. Audiostrobelight's facebook page and link to their latest single!

Sunday, I got to see Breaking Dawn with Steph (strange sense of closure!) and I've discovered my favorite snack and meal (thus far!) in Chinatown. The best snack ever is an Angel Food smoothie with no sugar from Smoothie King and the best dinner ever is an avocado, tomato, and swiss cheese crepe from the crepe place in Chinatown. (Though this is like the only crepe I've tried from there, I still think it's the best!) The guys who run the crepe stand are super sweet, too. Actually paella from La Tasca could probably rival the crepe, but anyway.......

My grand plans for Thanksgiving are as follows: Middle sis in in NYC and came down this past weekend to visit (leaving behind a lovely black bomber jacket accidentally) so she sadly won't be home:( Youngest sis will be house-sitting part of the time:(, but her and I have prioritized watching The Santa Clause together while she's home. Lauren (one of my best friends from elementary/middle/high school....we were cheer captains together) and I are going to watch Love Actually and catch up on all of the things that close friends catch up on when they haven't seen each other for a while. I also plan on watching the Redskins beat the Cowboys! Hopefully, I will be cooking with my mom all day learning her tricks of the trade since I realized I don't yet know how to make an apple pie from scratch and real apple pies are pretty crucial to my existence. I want to be self-sufficient and able to bake an apple pie should I find myself in a moment of need and/or desperation. Friday, I am going to the Kennedy Center with Mike's family so that should be fun and I'll let you know how that goes.

Expect a post of things I am thankful for in a few days because, ultimately, that's what Thanksgiving is about and my favorite part of the holiday.

Once We Were Perfect Strangers...

Show week was hard for me considering it was also student registration at work. I saw 3 of the 4 performances and helped usher all 4 nights. I was tired a lot, but every night would get a sympathetic rush of adrenaline for all of the actors and actresses in the show.

As promised, some pictures from the show!

"Mister John Jasper!!!" 

Never knew Noah could get so creepy. I hope this isn't what Davia has to put up with.

I heart Bazzard.

I also need to update some of my show superlatives after seeing the show two more times after I saw it with Mike's mother.

Favorite song in the show: Overtaking Perfect Strangers and Writing on the Wall is the dark horse of songs, the creepy "Moonfall". I tried not to listen to the lyrics of Moonfall since they creeped me out, but Moonfall's reprise and Jasper's Confession both had themes of the song. I thought the song was one of the most interesting and beautiful of the show.

Favorite lines of the show: Obviously, I'm biased. But I'm sure you would get similar findings if you polled the audience. Mike's/Bazzard's lines "The goose is cooked" and "Mister John Jasper!!!" were my favorite in the show. No matter how many times I saw it, I always lost it on those lines and the audience loved him! (No wonder Bazzard was voted Detective 3 out of 4 nights.) Other favorite lines, when Goo calls out the Chairman: "It's not normal, it doesn't happen to every guy, and it IS a BIG DEAL." Also Princess Puffer: "I had 'im when 'e was fourteen. You ain't 'ad better since, 'ave you? Oh...'e ain't 'ad any since."

Favorite moment of the show: Goo's dog, Nori, played a role in the show during one of Goo's lines and she was so adorable. Everyone loved her, well, them both.

Best method acting: Noah/John Jasper is a great actor and actually really creepy. He never missed any of his lines and managed to be funny despite his creepiness.

Best cockney accent: Princess Puffer/Meg has had me talking in a British accent still.

Favorite character: DURDLES as played by Josh. Most of the show for me was spent clapping, laughing, or shouting "Durdles!" very loudly and obnoxiously. Josh is the funniest ever.

Some of the best parts of the show were just being able to spend time with friends  and people visiting from out of town. Friday night, Mike's grandma and Brian came to the show and there was also a formal party I got dressed up for. I love having an excuse to dress up.

Mike and I all dress up for the formal party. Before the muttonchops went.

Saturday: The next morning I got breakfast with Mike's grandparents, Brian, and Mike. I ordered the crab eggs benedict while everyone else got the buffet. I'm such a rebel. Saturday Absi arrived and Josh and Brian and Mike and I got to hang out with her until the show. We went to the portrait gallery and got crepes/smoothies. (My avocado, swiss, and tomato crepe was ohmigawdsogood.) Then Absi and I went to meet Ben at the Gibson, a speakeasy in DC that had the ultimate ambience and was like a step back in time. The Gibson is truly an experience worth paying a little extra on drinks for. Absi and I both got champagne cocktails (Unicorn Tears and the Pampered Mousse). My Unicorn Tears had gin in it and I actually liked it! I had to leave early to usher at the show again and Kelly and Alex were waiting there to help me. I had begged them for some help ushering and both agreed instantly and were actually there before me. I have the best friends ever. After the show (the only in which Mike wasn't Detective, but was a Lover instead), the House manager Patrick gave me the sweetest card thanking me for ushering all 4 nights.....so thoughtful of him and I've now pledged my allegiance to house managing. The final party was at Josh and Steph's new place and it felt like junior prom with the lights and decorations, only with really awesome food (per usual anytime Steph is around).

Sunday: You would think the magic of the weekend would have ended after the show, but Sunday I spent a magical afternoon with Netflix and my bed and then Sunday evening  Mike and I also got to have dinner (beef stew and red wine) with Jessie and her boyfriend Duncan.

<3:

I'm mostly a stranger to the theater. The only theater and performance experience I have is from ballet when I was a young girl, church fine arts productions, The Princess Bride in high school, and working the box office one semester in college. I guess that is some experience, but performing is not my thing. I don't like being watched, I get horrible stage-fright, I'm introverted, and I get self-conscious in front of a group of people. But, I have decided that, despite not really being a theater person, theater people are my kind of people.


It is hard to believe that the last time Mike was in a show, I barely knew all of these people. Over the past 3 shows, I've gradually gotten to know everyone better and know my life just wouldn't be complete without them in it. Mike is often referred to (by himself and others) as a "gateway friend". He introduces people who get along wonderfully until the friendship is sustainable on its own without Mike needing to be the glue. I mean, we still let him hang around, though. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to get closer to the people I've met over the past year. So thanks to everyone who welcomed me into their lives and then decided to keep me.

Heart full.

Opening Night

The Mystery of Edwin Drood opened last night at Georgetown University Law Center. Mike's mom was visiting so I rushed to meet up with her as soon as I got off work. Mike's mom and I reminisced and there was a very hilarious typical Kelsey moment when Leslie was telling me about her day and I mistook the word valet for ballet leading me to interpret a very different story from the one she was telling and to go off on a tangent about my own personal ballet experience. It had been a long day.

Anyway, I got pinned as an usher with my official usher badge and there was even free wine and beer for audience members. Last time I saw Mike and his friends in a play, I was just beginning to get to know them. Now that they are basically family, it made the show that much more amazing. I laughed throughout the entire show and so did everyone around me. Mike was voted the role of the detective and sang a solo (thanks to overwhelming audience favor due to his campaigning prior to the show), Jessie was voted as the murderer, and Emily and Meg were the lovers. I can't wait to see if the audience vote changes each night!

Favorites from the show:

• Hair/Makeup/Costumes! Sara did an awesome job on hair and makeup and anyone else involved did incredible work. 
• I love the songs Writing on the Wall and Perfect Strangers. 
• Josh Litten.
• The audience! The audience was great last night and the actors really help to put everyone at ease and make it a really awesome interactive experience.

I thought it would be do-able to usher and see the show every night/hang out with everyone after while also waking up to go to work each morning. It has proven very difficult. Every night of the show seems like such a rush of adrenaline, but this morning I was so tired I could cry. I don't know how the people who are actually in the show do it and all of them have full-time jobs or are in law school.

Anyway, if you're in the DC area, you can still get tickets for Thurs-Sat shows. All are at 8pm on the GULC campus. I will be ushering for all of them.

Link to tickets: http://www.goldstar.com/events/washington-dc/the-mystery-of-edwin-drood

Hopefully I'll have show pictures to add later!

Art, Argo, Lavagna

Friday night, I went to see Argo. I have not kept my dislike of Ben Affleck a secret, but people kept telling me the movie was awesome and a friend wanted to see it so I figured I'd give it a shot. It was amazing. One of those movies where you leave feeling really satisfied at the end. The movie is about the Iranian hostage crisis which, if you stopped paying attention in AP U.S. history after the Cold War like I did, was a huge deal. After the recent tragedy at the U.S. embassy in Libya, I think the movie was especially relevant too. Definitely worth going to see.

After Argo, I stopped by Georgetown's Gilbert and Sullivan Society rehearsal for Drood, getting there just in time to hear Mike sing. Mike sings well, but not really unless he's on stage or unless someone's playing a piano. Given my recent string of failures in getting him to sing White Christmas for me, this was a real treat. Also: the show's going to be awesome. It's a Choose-You-Own-Ending style musical based on the only unfinished novel by Charles Dickens. lots of Cockney accents, comedy, and fun.

After rehearsal, Mike and I also caught up on our new Netflix obsession: Legend of the Seeker. It is guilty pleasure FANTASY reminiscent of LOTR, but with really pretty people instead of hobbits. Much of the dialogue makes me laugh, but I'm unable to stop watching. So that has taken precedence over Doctor Who for the time being.

Saturday, I spent some time at the American Museum of Art/The National Portrait Gallery. This is my second favorite museum in the city, my first love being the National Gallery of Art, of course. Whenever I start to feel trapped or crowded by the city, I like to spend a few hours in a museum and remind myself that I am so lucky to have so much culture and history at my fingertips whenever I want and within walking distance. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from that outing.

My favorite statue in the American Museum of Art.

My favorit painting. It's huge and if I stand really close to it, I feel like I'm in Montana.

Third floor. 

There is a secret wing on the third floor where they have free tea and coffee Thurs-Sat 11am-3:30pm.  Free coffee attracts so many different kinds of people. 

One of my favorite pieces in the modern art wing.

Love this.

More modern art. So real.

After the art museum, I met up with Mike who had been hard at work in the library, and we made pesto chicken pasta for dinner. When we got back to his house he gave me some of his mail to open (because he had gotten some packages that I figured he was just too lazy to open). When I opened the first box, it was a DVD of The Santa Clause, which was only the movie I had been talking about/quoting every day for the past week! The second box was a yoga mat since the floor at my apartment is so hard I need two mats to do yoga comfortably. It's safe to say that Mike is the best present giver ever. However, anyone who will put up with watching The Santa Clause with me while I quote most of it knowing full well that me having the DVD will probably make this a regular occurrence, is a keeper.

On Sunday, Kelly and Alex invited us to Lavagna, one of up-and-coming brunch places in DC. Kelly read a Lavagna review on a blog and told me about their $10 bottomless mimosas and locally-sourced menu. I mean, she had me at bottomless mimosas, but I couldn't wait to try their food either. For some reason, Mike got a wine glass rather than a champagne flute for his mimosa and that led to mimosas twice the size of everyone else's. I can't take him anywhere.

Mike and his VIP treatment Mimosa.

Mike and Alex each got the Biscuit Egg Sausage Gravy with italian sausage. Meat is not my thing, but, trust me when I say that it's the best sausage gravy and biscuits you will ever have. And I'm from the South. Kelly got the Veggie Frittata which looked amazing. I got the Mascarpone Pancakes with honey nutella mascarpone. If you only get one thing there, it must be these pancakes. They tasted like warm buttery christmas in your mouth. The mimosas and coffee were delicious and so was the conversation. I threw out the idea of a Williamsburg reunion  for NYE sometime soon with much support. Alex and I talked about the football games later that day, and Mike chimed in with his analysis of the footballs and how "his team" the Panthers were going to beat the Redskins. Because the Panthers had a 1-6 record and the Redskins were OVERDUE for a win and I get super defensive of my team, I told Mike that the Panthers winning would put our relationship in jeopardy. Bad news: the Redskins were slaughtered and I'm not dealing with it well. Good news: Mike and I are trying to work things out.

All in all, a success of a weekend!

This week is not only election week, but registration week for my students so work will be crazy, but it is also crazy for a lot of my friends who work on Capitol Hill or who are starring in GGSS's The Mysterious Case of Edwin Drood which opens this week or who do both. Show weeks mean a little more stress, a ton of fun, and looking forward to the day when Mike finally gets to shave his muttonchops!

Happy election/show/registration week and GO VOTE!

Zombies, Halloween, Frankenstorm!

Well today was my first day back to work after a long wonderful 4-day weekend. Saturday morning, Mike and I participated in the Run For Your Lives Zombie 5K as zombies. (We initially signed up for this race in March, so I'm glad we followed our good feeling about the relationship.) We were up before the sun, again, for a running event, but this time we just got to scare people for 3 hours instead of running 6 miles. I thought the event was surprisingly well organized for being in the middle of nowhere outside of Baltimore with over 10,000 runners. The 5k was an obstacle course with runners being chased by zombies (us). If they lost all 3 of their flags, they were dead. Mike and I got our clothes all torn and messed up and then got makeup done. I'm pretty sure my makeup artist was recruited at the last minute to help push people through the queue (it was running behind schedule) as he just splotched dots of blood all over my face and called it a day. It was fuhreezing, but so much fun! I was the worst zombie ever and Mike was the best zombie ever. I could not keep a straight face hardly at all while going after runners, but I got better as the day went on.

Earlier in the day when I was incapable of keeping a straight face.

After the zombie race, we had planned to run in the 5k, but we were already exhausted from 3 hours of zombie-ing and I had hurt a tendon in my foot or something. Plus all of the runners had to swim through a river, crawl in a mud pit, and dunk in a pool at the finish and we had to get back to DC for a Halloween party and wouldn't have time to shower or clean off before getting in the car. Five Guys and frozen yogurt sounded like a much better idea so we did that instead. Tip: dunk your fries in the malt vinegar THEN in the ketchup.


Back in DC, we immediately started getting ready for the Halloween party hosted by Jeff, Mike, and Noah. Muttonchop Mike had no choice other than Wolverine so I had no choice other than Rogue.

Alex (Johnny Cash), Selena (Risky Business), and Moi.

Wolverine & Rogue and two awesome photobombers.

So on Sunday, there was this thing called the Frankenstorm to deal with. Luckily, it worked out to where I could spend the Hurricane having a Hurrication Party with the best people ever in NE. There was fondue, brownies, Netflix, and I had no work to do! Unlike people who are in school and can always do more work or read ahead, I got to do absolutely nothing except for reading for fun, cooking, and watching Netflix:) We did not even lose power once.

My sister in NYC was okay and, even though my family in NOVA just got power back this evening, I'm so grateful that things weren't worse here. My thoughts and prayers are with those who got the worst of Sandy.

Today, as evidenced by my out-of-character productivity, I was actually excited to get back to work. Let's hope that continues. Two more days till another weekend:)

Hashtags and Falafel

Bye Bye Debate Season

I will not miss debate season because the debates taught me anything. If anything, they taught me that apparently no one thinks they can win an election by being honest or genuine and that style>content. So what will I miss about debate season?

The Debate Crew. The first and third debates I watched at Alex's house with some of my favorite people. We ate, drank, laughed, and tweeted our way through the awkward. They also saved me a lot of fact-checking because my friends are smart;) Kylie and Adam made it up for the 3rd debate and I hadn't seen them in so long. It was wonderful. I would honestly not mind debates every week if it meant I also got to get together with this favorite bunch of people. Also for everyone wondering who came up with that brilliant hashtag #welcometocandyland, yeah it was yours truly. (You cannot tell me that you don't feel good every time someone favorites your tweet or uses your hashtag. It's the little things.) #nobabies2012 will always have the top hashtag spot in my twitterverse.

Running

An impulsive decision was made this past Saturday (after a Bodypump class that I talked the boyfriend into doing with me) that we wanted to run to Amsterdam Falafel. We had done it once before, but I think I whined less this time until we got to the huge hill leading to the main street in Adams Morgan. We walked back and I was so sore the next day, but I think it was worth it for falafel and to not have to drive through the city. 

Happy Hour Adventures

It was only fitting to go to my first after work happy hour with Kelly, my person. If you don't know what person means, then you didn't go through a Grey's obsession phase like I did in undergrad. Technically my first after work happy hour was with her boyfriend, Alex, at the Pug, but I drank diet soda and vented stress to him while he watched a DC United game so I don't know if that really counts. Kelly and I met at Union Station and she had white wine while I drank blood orange bellinis. We talked about all the things you talk to your person about when you haven't had person time in a while: families, dads, friends, work, money, relationships, 'remember when' stories, everyone who has gotten married or pregnant since we last spoke, and getting a house together.....the usual. Of course, we had to have an adventure getting back to NE after. It involved waiting for a bus, walking to meet another bus, me remembering I left my bag at the bar, waiting in line for a cab...I think Alex was relieved when we finally showed up. We were tired, but so happy and I suppose that's the point of a happy hour.

This Weekend

I am running a Zombie 5k this weekend. I will both be a zombie and running from zombies so that should be fun and/or terrifying. I also have to go to a Halloween party and dress up as something. I am still not decided between Rogue, Glinda the Good Witch, a cheerleader (I stole my sister's old high school uniform), or I don't know....I'm bad at the costume thing.

This Is How You Do a 10K

This past weekend, Mike, Kelly, Alex, and I roadtripped to West Virginia for a 10k race in Harper's Ferry. This was actually the first race I had signed up for since last December's Christmastown Dash and, despite the lack of training and 5am wake-up time, I was super excited. DC has no mountains so Fall here just doesn't have the same Fall feeling that being in the mountains brings. Well, we were definitely in the mountains.

The Oatmeal Bowl: I was trying very hard to be extra prepared for the race so I may have made an entire giant bowl of oatmeal with peanut butter, milk, and raisins to take along with us in the car. It was not in tupperware or anything. I seriously just rolled up to their car with a bowl of oatmeal in tow. Pretty silly after realizing Kelly and Alex had packed bagels and cream cheese, but I ate all of my oatmeal for the whole grains which would keep me full and energized far into the race! I may have been made fun of, but I think my pace speaks for itself:)

Backseat kids so excited to be up at 5am!

Even though we gave ourselves extra time to get to the race by leaving super early on Saturday morning, we were a little stressed out when Alex's GPS stopped working due to lack of cell service and  the race organization's instructions seemed like they weren't really written for people coming from out of town. Oh well, we made it to the starting line, woke ourselves up a little more in the 30 degree weather, and I had time to chug some coffee down quickly before the race began!

Me chugging coffee while Alex gets pumped up.

Also crucial to this entire day was each of us downloading a playlist that Mike had made for the group so we could sync it with our run. That way, even if we got separated with our different paces, we would still feel like we were running together. (We had a few close calls where we thought one of us had downloaded it incorrectly, but we all managed to get the entire playlist.) Running to a synced playlist has been on my to-do list for a while now so I was extremely excited for this!

Harper's Ferry 10K Epic Mix:


Theme from Requiem for a Dream       6:31  
We're All In This Together               3:56 High School Musical  
Born To Run                                       4:32 Bruce Springsteen
Be A Man                                       3:30 Mulan
Chariots of Fire                               3:34
Eye of the Tiger                               4:11 Rocky
Run This Town                               4:36 Rihanna and Kanye
I Ran                                               3:57 A Flock of Seagulls
Shake It Out                                       4:38 Florence + The Machine
Go the Distance                               4:33 Michael Bolton
Stronger                                               4:26 Kanye West
Time is Running Out                       3:56 Muse
I'll Run                                               3:49 The Cab
Neverending Story                               3:41 Limahl
Survivor                                               4:09 Destiny's Child
We are the Champions                       3:11 Queen

I obviously was the one who suggest the Flo-Flo song which had been perfectly placed because I hit it almost halfway through my race. The Cab's "I'll Run" was a complete surprise to me. This was the first hit song from a band I showed Alex when we were in undergrad.....one of the few bands I have actually introduced Alex to rather than the other way around:) I almost mentioned adding this song to Mike, but figured no one would have it. Thankfully, Alex suggested it! It's one of my favorite running songs and it came on while I was in my last mile. I crossed the finished line as that song ended:)

Impressions Before and During Race: It was a GORGEOUS course. It was more cold than any of my training runs in DC (under 40 degrees the whole time). I was wearing fleece leggings, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, and a running half-zip. I got hot on top about a quarter through the race, but just rolled up my sleeves.

Results: This is the link to the results website where you can view the full results. I got 5th place in my age group (20-29...hard to believe I'm right in the middle of that) out of 66 women! What is really interesting/funny is that Mike also got exactly 5th place in his age group (20-29 males). I averaged 8:22/mile which I believe is faster than my pace in any other previous race. Mike averaged 7:43/mile. I definitely ran more than him leading up to the race, but I'm telling myself he is just naturally talented at...everything....so I shouldn't feel bad. :)

Team Harper's ferry 10k Roadtrip:) Reppin WM and DC!

KELSEY HUTCHESON

DIVISION:  10K

Gender:  F         Age:  25

Finish Time:   51:53.5

Pace:    8:22

Age Rank:    5 F-20 to 29

Impressions After Race: I attribute my awesome race time to the amazing playlist (I've always said with the right playlist, I would run forever), to really great racing company, to the cold (makes you want to run faster to keep warm, I think), to great scenery, to the caffeine I drank right before running, and to the oatmeal I had for breakfast of course.

Immediately after the race, we were directed to free pizza, bagels, bananas, oranges, and drinks courtesy of the racing organization. I didn't eat pizza because I just felt I couldn't stomach it, but I had two Panera bagels (they had cinnamon crunch!). Also, we immediately sought out our free beer from the beer garden offered after the race. It was hosted by a Bavarian-style in on the top of a hillside in the area with a crazy good view of Harper's Ferry. I got a Bud Light because I couldn't think about drinking a darker beer right after a race and because the Bud Light guy seemed nice. The sun toasted me back to post-race warmth levels and sitting on that hillside drinking beer in the sun with endorphins flowing through my blood was seriously one of the most peaceful and rewarding moments I have in my memory. It made the 6 miles so worth it.

Step 1) Register. Step 2) Beer.

After the race and driving back to DC, we obviously we were all dead, but we had managed to run 6 miles and chase them with beer before noon! I felt like I didn't have to do anything because I had already been so productive. (Note to self: You should do the waking-up-super-early-to-run thing more. I know you won't. But you should.)

Mike, Kelly, Alex, and I already have our eyes set on our next race. A Tower of Terror 10-miler at Disney next Fall?!?! Guess I'd better start committing to those morning runs.

Much-needed weekend of rest coming up. Hope everyone has a great one!