Only five more weeks to go of sitdown classwork. Only. Five. More.
Admittedly, I scoffed initially when I heard as grad students we got a "spring break" [Ed. Woo hoo!! Spring Break!!]. That's for undergrads, and we should just work on through it and get done with stuff.
And then I dealt with our core course format, and it kicked my ass. I think I may have gone quite insane and/or dropped out if this wasn't scheduled. I spent the week with Tom in DC. I lunched. I napped. I sat around and stank. It was great! I also managed to do lots of fun things around town.
The first Friday I drove down with some friends from Brooklyn and showed them the town. Hit Titan for Woof! followed by a late night dinner with the crew at Annie's Steakhouse. Saturday - Blowoff of course! Awesome and fun as always. Bob and Rich put on a consistently great party month after month. Sunday the guests headed back to NYC, and I got to stay behind and enjoy the icy spring of DC. Equipped with winter coats, we braved the elements most of the week. Sunday night I got to hang at JR's which was fun for a change. No smoking makes all the difference.
Monday was low key. Tom & I cooked dinner at home. Mmmmm.... Steak. And then I may or may not have sung showtunes at Showtunes Night. And I'm still not sure if that was Liza or Julie.
Tuesday Tom and I froze our buns off at a Washington Nationals baseball game. It was only slightly traumatic for me as they played the braves. I staved off panic attacks by sipping overpriced beer and eating hotdogs. Stay away from the pizza at RFK.
Wednesday I was really fortunate to have a friend score me tickets to a sold-out TV on the Radio show at the 9:30 Club. I wasn't sure how they were going to be live since it's a lot of synthesizers and samples and whatnot - but they pulled it off. The lead singer really was most of the show, as the other guys just jammed and stood still basically.
Thursday rolled around, which means the weekend is here again. Ow. My liver. On Friday I had a wander about town. Walking all the way to Roosevelt Island in DC and checking out the Memorial there. Teddy is posed like an action figure with amazing choping action. Hi-yah! Then back to Titan for more socializing.
Saturday I had late lunch with Freddy, aka Megan from Iowa. It was great to catch up. We then hung out in and around Dupont Circle most of the day. "So, where can a couple of guys get a good salad around here?" We had a late dinner at Duplex Diner - meh - and then ran into some peeps out again that night. Relatively early to bed and a nice Sunday brunch at the Adams Morgan Diner.
The worst part of the vacation is usually the part where you realize it's time to pack up and head home. Back to the grind. Back to reality. I wrote this on the train back to New York, and five weeks of class before things get REALLY serious. Four more years of thesis work after I actually select a lab. No pressure, really.
One year closer to my own mortality. Yahoo! I must say I have a great group of friends. From my grad school buddies, to my NY peeps, to my DC crew. You guys rock. George was splendid enough to take me to a fabulous dinner at Nobu57. All I can say is wow. So. Damn. Delicious. 
Spent the weekend in DC, hanging with