Best Friends and Beignets

A couple of days ago my mom and I drove up to DC for a few days, primarily because I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon (just a usual check-up) but also because I couldn't visit the East Coast without seeing one of my very best friends!!!

Me and Kay in Disney World, Spring 2009

Kay and I have known each other since orientation week our freshman year of undergrad, but we didn't become best friends until the very last day of freshman year when we shared a pint of ice cream and watched Big Fish just before I moved out of the dorm. Since then, we've kind of been on the same wavelength. Our friend Mike sometimes forgets we aren't the same person and will tell a story to Kay and then assume that I know it, too. It doesn't quite work like that (but close).

Anyway, yesterday afternoon/evening, Kay and I got to see each other! We had some amazing Belgian hot chocolate at Le Pain Quotidien, then we had our usual cups of tea and catching up. Then we exchanged Christmas gifts! Kay gave me a GORGEOUS set of dishes with a blue flower pattern that just suits me so well!

A perfect Christmas present!

Then we went to pick up Brian (her husband, and also one of my friends) and then Mike (of the polar bear picture fame from the last post), and we all went to Dehli Dhabba Indian food restaurant for dinner. While there, we saw some questionable 'Bollywood' clips. Usually they play very traditional Bollywood movies, but yesterday they were... perhaps not quite so family friendly. I'm glad Kay, Brian, and Mike were there to back me up on what we saw, or else I might not believe it. But the food was wonderful, as usual, and we had a fantastic dinner with the four of us.

But perhaps the most consistently wonderful part of visiting DC now is that my parents place is just a short walk from a New Orleans-style restaurant that serves beignets and cafe au lait in the mornings. If I had this place a short walk from my apartment in Seattle a) I'd have no trouble getting out of bed in the mornings, and b) I'd be about thirty pounds heavier. It's amazing!

Cafe Au Lait and Beignets

It also reinforces my desire to live somewhere in the South.... if not New Orleans, perhaps Savannah or Charleston, or somewhere in North Carolina, or hey, good old Virginia (this is, of course, assuming I don't just expatriate to the UK). It might not surprise you to know that one of my Christmas gifts was a subscription to Southern Living Magazine.

But tonight, my lovely sojourn to DC comes to a close, and it's off to see Zan in Staunton!!!