Louisa, the Beltway Insider

Although I skipped over our week-long dramatic move from West to East Coast which included Amos alone in the car with two very uncomfortable cats for two straight days and our arrival to our new neighborhood in Arlington where it seemed, despite the barren landscape of our entire trip, vivid fall leaves remained on the trees that lined the streets so as we pulled up to our new home, we kept using the word idyllic, I do think it’s time for an update. I hope to update this blog more frequently now that I actually have uninterrupted computer time. 

We have finally, nearly settled into our new home. I realized the week after we arrived that a mid-November move is a difficult one. Setting aside the fact that Amos couldn’t be here for the first two weeks so we relied on the help of our good Portland friends and my friend’s young, strong boyfriend to assist with organizing and heavy lifting, arriving a week and a half before a very late Thanksgiving which is followed three weeks later by Christmas is unsettling. However, now that we are here for the near future, we have committed to finishing our projects.

We live in Arlington in an area called Fairlington Village, a neighborhood of brick townhomes and apartments that was built after World War II for returning servicemen and their families. Although the idea of living in a town home has always evoked white walls, white carpet and minimal windows to me, our place and the neighborhood are quite charming. Our little row of houses is made up entirely of young families and there is an active Mom’s Group in the area  (although there are a lot of rules associated with play groups due to the potential of allergies - weird)  which has given us things to do with Louisa that don’t involve going to Target to pick out toys from the dollar bin. We have hardwood floors which are equally helpful and treacherous for a brave toddler, two bathrooms about which we are entirely enthusiastic, and a lovely finished basement that acts as my office and a spare room (SO COME VISIT BECAUSE IT’S COZY!). We are coming to terms with the fact that we have much less space than in Portland. There is no large pantry for me to put my ever-expanding kitchen equipment. But we are adjusting and flexibly figuring out how to make our space as comfortable and user-friendly as possible.  We also have a huge attic storage which has saved us.

We brought the kitties out after Christmas. Flying with two cats and a toddler seemed daunting but it worked out quite well. We kept reminding ourselves that this flight from MSP to DCA was one hour and fifty minutes as opposed to the three hour and thirty minute trip from MSP to PDX, so in that context it  was doable. The girls have been very happy to return to Louisa and Sissy spends most nights snuggled up with Louisa in her crib.

We were lucky in Portland to have so many good, reliable, fun friends and knew before moving that finding a social network equivalent to Portland’s would be a challenge. But I have reunited with some old friends from the Humphrey and old roommates from London which has been fun. It is refreshing and exciting to be socializing with people who are invested in policy and politics and making the world a better place. While I love Portland dearly (despite the traffic and delusion), people were less interested in current events, politics and elections – election day was kind of depressing day for me, in fact, because no one seemed to really talk about it – which was such a drastic change from Minnesota that it was difficult to adjust to. Not so here, of course, which so far I enjoy.

DC is also, as most of you know, full of activities, museums, monuments that are all free. So it feels like there are limitless things to do here. I remember last fall after Amos and I went to our third pumpkin patch in Portland how, despite my sadness of leaving, I was looking forward to living in a city with countless activities and never having to worry about not having anything to do with Louisa.

Louisa has made multiple visits to the Air and Space Museum as well as the Natural History Museum where she has grown obsessed with the Hope Diamond and speaks of it frequently. We also went to the Air and Space Museum near the Dulles airport which is essentially a massive hanger with many airplanes from throughout American history. Most exceptional is the space shuttle which was completely fascinating. Amos and I were riveted. I highly suggest going to this museum. The only drawback is the only food they have there is McDonalds. We had to eat it!

We spent about 10 days back in Minnesota around Christmas. We were in the Cities for three and a half days and I tried to fit in as many meetings, coffees and lunches with people as I possibly could although it is never enough. It seems that no matter the length of my visit I always miss out on time with important people. I lament the fact that meeting friends at a bar or restaurant is becoming more difficult as Louisa gets older and we have no real place to host our multiple friends (unless, like many of you wonderful people, you want to drive down to New Ulm for some Wendy Tuttle cooking!) so it is impossible to see everyone we always want to see. This is particularly sad to me as Louisa grows and develops. But whatevs, as long as we are living in Minnesota by the time she is in kindergarten!

Unfortunately while we were home, Louisa had a brief sickness Christmas Eve which I initially was convinced was due to over excitement from the evening. As is tradition, our friends, Sharon and Dave, came to our house for dinner with their granddaughter, Olivia. Louisa and Olivia played so hard they were out of breath by the end of the night. They particularly liked playing, “they all fall down!” and falling down and rolling around.

But the excitement was not the culprit. Thursday evening as I sat in my kitchen talking to one of my best friends, Carla, and preparing to take Amos out on the town of NU, I grew nauseated and ended up throwing up all night. It sucked. Plus I didn’t get to enjoy my mom’s friend chicken. Instead the next night she made chicken soup which was the first food or liquid I was able to ingest after 24 hours. Amos also ended up getting a queasy tummy but was able to settle his stomach much quicker than I did mine. So sadly, we lost a day in NU to illness. By the time I was feeling better, however,  the weather had warmed and we were able to play outside and build a snow man as well as shovel as much snow and chip as much ice as time would allow. It was very Minnesota.

We are back and eagerly awaiting our next visitor, Abby, our friend from Portland who comes in a few weeks. Then after that, Louisa’s other parents, the Goodells, come for a long weekend! I assume this means Tina and I will be spending most of the weekend planning what we will eat and Shay and Amos will be talking about sports. We are also hoping my mom can come sometime in February so she can help me hang our art and put the finishing touches on our place so we no longer have sporadic boxes lying around or edged into corners.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! I have tons of Christmas photos that I thought I uploaded via my phone but it didn't work. I'll figure it out eventually!