another whirlwind trip to VA

This past weekend I made my 8th trip to Virginia this year, this time to help celebrate the marriage of my awesome college roommate Brittany and her awesome husband Adam! Of course, I spent a few extra days before and after, visiting with other friends in the area as well.

First, I have to say, Northern Virginia continues to charm me. Well, the traffic is still not charming, nor is the overdevelopment, but I keep finding new things that I enjoy. First was Jammin Java in Vienna. I traveled down on Thursday night so that I could just wake up and get to work on some thesis things Friday morning. However, I beat the librarians to the local library, much to my chagrin. So I wandered down two blocks to Jammin Java, which is awesome for reasons including, but not limited to: good selection of teas (and all of the coffee type beverages that coffee drinkers would appreciate), they were playing my favorite Radiohead album when I walked in, they apparently had Dogfish Head on tap (it was 9.30 in the morning, I didn't find out what brew in particular), well priced, nice staff... sweet little music venue, I imagine. I also later found out that the owners are from Jersey. Of course it was awesome. I happily worked here for a few hours before hitting the library.

Also very charming in Northern VA: Mad Fox Brewing Company in Falls Church, where my dude and I met up with my beer buddy and his girlfriend. My full review is here. The short version: AWESOME.

However, beer of the day probably goes to the incredible Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout, acquired at The Big Hunt in D.C.

Not the tree of the trip: that awesome mulberry tree. Taylor and I had planned on going back with my tree measuring tape (I know I'm a dork) to figure out how old it is, but I forgot the tape. Argh.

The wedding was on Saturday in Fairfax at Historic St. Mary's chapel. What a lovely little church, and a really sweet wedding. I lived with Brittany from sophomore year onward and really enjoyed getting to know them both through those years. It was awesome to see them finally make it official! It was also pretty sweet to catch up with the rest of our sweet suite.



On Sunday morning, I went to Kitty's with Taylor for brunch and English soccer. Brunch was good, and I fulfilled a life goal to consume Guinness before noon (clearly the beer of the day, as a result). I don't think I have a drinking problem, but I was jealous when I received a text message from my beer buddy during the World Cup saying he was enjoying a game with a Guinness... at about 9 AM. We ended up heading into D.C. to hang out with Luke for a while before eventually meeting our friends Scott and Alison for an excellent dinner at Dishes of India. It was great to catch up with them over such a delicious meal.

On Monday, I headed back to Jersey, specifically my office on Livingston Campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway, which I took a rather inefficient route to reach, avoiding tolls and touring things aside from I-95. It was a productive afternoon and evening in the office after taking my sweet time getting there. Always tough to get back to work after such a great weekend, but that thesis is calling, and it is again right now...

the Colleen authority of NY and NJ

At the end of last week, I had some unexpected journeying through New Jersey. While I love NJ dearly and am always excited to check out new places in the state, the circumstances were not the greatest-- the new beau was coming to visit for the weekend from Virginia and totaled his car en route. Taylor thankfully walked away unscathed.



And so I had the opportunity to drive to Bellmawr late Thursday night to retrieve him from a state police station, and down to Deptford the next day to help him empty his car and say goodbye to it. Both of these drives involved heading straight through my beloved Pine Barrens and hanging out in semi-rural Wawa country on the other side of the state. Not much going on down there, though we did stop for an afternoon snack at a perfectly legit Jersey diner. The drive was fine, and the grey skies actually provided a lovely backdrop for the changing leaves.



The weekend was redeemed with a trip to New York City that had been planned all along to see an exhibit of artistic maps at Pratt University. I mean, really artistic. Like the gelatin Lady Liberty and New York Skyline. The exhibit had the term "psychogeography" in the title... so not my particular branch of geography, but very interesting nonetheless. This was Taylor's original excuse to come visit, since he's a cartographer.



Other highlights of the city included discovering Odessa Cafe over by Tompkins Square Park and the Joe Strummer mural, a total gem of a diner with well priced good food; hanging out in Central Park (tree of the day: black maple that dropped its leaves all over the rock we sat on there); meeting up with one of Taylor's friends from college for a beer and to see Megamind, which I thought was pretty great. All in all, a good trip to the city.