It took me awhile to feel at home in DC, to find my bearings, to feel comfortable, to make friends. As soon as I moved I started exploring and immediately loved the District – the clean Metro, the endless greenery, the wine shop in our neighborhood, the unbelievable culture (free! all free!) that I could walk to – but it felt for a long time like a rather delightful vacation that slowly sank into home. I was prepared for the same thing to happen this time, and tried hard to steal myself against the rootlessness that would surely come.

So it’s been quite a shock to me that since I’ve been back in the District (a scant three weeks after I left it), I keep texting Steve the same thing – I can’t wait to come home - and I don’t just mean to him, I mean to our cottage and our coffee shop and my bike and my strawberries and my office and the tiny beautiful life we’ve built there in such a short time.

I mean to California.

On our last weekend in the District, we went to Jazz in the Garden for the last time. Almost every Friday during the summer, I would walk the few blocks up the sculpture garden and stick my feet in the large fountain, read whatever book or magazine article I was working on at the time, maybe get some gelato and wait for my friends to start trickling in. Sometimes it was just a couple people, but other times everyone shows up and they bring their friends who bring their friends and you end up on a red blanket drinking someone’s wine and eating hummus. And that is how I met Melike, a friend of Ben’s. It was a bit bittersweet because she is just so poised and bright and cool, so of course I had to meet her days before I moved across the country, right? Still, she let me take her picture and when I go back to DC, I’ll try to talk her into having coffee with me too.

But I am very busy, sitting on some boxes (and most likely fighting with Comcast to get internet ASAP because possible clinical disorder?) So instead here is a picture of the Capitol, which I walked by all year on my way home from work, and which still makes me pause and suck in my breath a bit.

You will be missed.

It’s 1:30 in the morning and I just got in from a night out with friends. Dancing and Karaoke at Dupont Italian Kitchen, teary hugs on the corner, leaving too early because somehow I stumbled into adulthood and need to be up early for work tomorrow. I’ve been meaning to put this picture up for awhile, it’s a bit old but I love it so.

All I really have to say tonight is that as I write my own narrative, I’m so grateful for the encouragement, the well-wishes, the love that each of you have tucked into my heart. I may be the subject, but it is the cast of characters, my friends and family, that make my story rich and full and wide. Thank you and dear god I will miss you so much.

On Saturday evening, Brent, Devin and I metro-ed over to Garrett’s house for dinner. I opened the sliding doors to his room and almost fell over from shock. A huge group of people! Screaming Surprise! Laughing. I saw my sister first. My sister who I had tried and failed to convince to come visit the night before. And then Fiona, who lives in NYC and who had texted me on Friday announcing her intentions to come to visit us next weekend. And then Anuse! And Morgan! And Ben! And Garrett! And Forrest! It was a surprise going away party and I was so shocked I truly couldn’t speak for a minute, sputtering what? and you? but how? I never get surprised. I am rather shrewd and very, very difficult to surprise. But they all pulled it off and I had NO IDEA.

Of course Steve was there as well. He had ruined his half of the surprise earlier by showing up unannounced at Garrett’s door because he had finished his test and decided to help Garrett cook! Such good intentions. He knocked and Anuse answered the door. They blinked and each other for a few seconds before Steve said What are you doing here? Then Morgan came out of the bathroom cursing at him for ruining the surprise. Steve maintains he was still surprised, just in a less dramatic way. It was such an amazing night. A perfect cap to our time here. So bittersweet hugging them for the last time before we leave.

Thanks so much everyone for coming. Thank you especially to G for hosting and organizing and wrangling. In our time here you have gone from friend to family and once you’ve crossed that line, sorry, there ain’t no turning back.

A shot of the Washington Monument (and a mysterious Secret Agent Man), because when this posts I will be seeing it out the window of my plane on my way to MIAMI! Woohooo. I’ll be visiting the Everglades so hopefully when I return I will have photos of alligator wrangling for you.

Ben needed a headshot for work so he stopped by and I took a couple (hence the shirt & tie). At one point he made this face. Not quite sure what he was going for, but to me it says WHO YOU CALLIN A SQUARE?

It’s usually round, and polygonal bokeh is supposed to be a photography no-no, but I LOVE IT.