I ate a lot of food this weekend.

Exciting news: My article about the Pentecostal woman is on USA Today's web site!!

And it's a been several days since I've written here, so strap in for a brief of my weekend!

So I didn't get much sleep Thursday night because of those papers, and in turn, I definitely didn't fare too well in class on Friday. After class, though, all of us in WJC went to Ebenezer's, this amazing coffee venue by Union Station that is actually run by the church I've attended several times here, and sat around with Terry for an hour or so talking about some of the events in town this weekend. And then just talking. The guy has been to way too many cool concerts. And knows Bono. Enough said.

After that I went out to Dupont Circle with Rachelle, Alex, Zack, Mark and Chris in search of dinner. We wandered around for quite a while before deciding on Berducci's, an Italian place that had the most wonderful rolls I've ever had as well as just all-around amazing food! Then when we got back, Rachelle, Mark, Zack, Chris and I all wanted to watch a movie, but it was late and we were tired so we opted for an episode of The Office instead. Since the tv in the lounge was taken, we watched in on my laptop in my and Rachelle's apartment. But one episode turned into three. And then we decided to talk for a really long time about everything, which was wonderful -- I'm definitely a fan of good conversation. We finally called it quits around 2 a.m.

I slept until 1 p.m. on Saturday, and it was beautiful. And then I had a 2-hour phone conversation with Aliayh, which was even more beautiful. After a much-needed shower, I walked with Rachelle to Safeway to get groceries and then afterwards went out to Chinatown in search of an interesting dinner. We settled on a Thai place that was AMAZING. Rachelle's chicken came in a pineapple. And I ate something with a really long name that consisted of ground chicken, pineapple, chili sauce, squash and shrimp. I'm pretty sure that Thai food is my favorite thing ever. I had tried it back in La Mirada and wasn't too impressed, but both times I've had it here, I've about died. So good!!

Then we heard from Alyssa and Yvette who wanted to go out for dessert, and we went back to get a little more dressed up. I finally got to wear my Bebe dress that I'm in love with, so I was happy! A bit after 10 we decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory, and Rachelle, Alyssa, Kati and I left ahead of Yvette and Christina to get a table. But it was an eventful travel. The nearest Cheesecake Factory is out off of Friendship Heights, and so we took the 92 bus which was supposed to connect with the metro. But we missed our stop (We think ... we might've been on the wrong bus, and the driver just lied to us, which was definitely probable ...) and we could see we weren't in the best area, so we decided we would just get off at the next stop and cough up the money to call a cab. But lo and behold, as we were pulling up to the stop, there was a metro sign! I say that was divine intervention, for us and our wallets! When we got to the Cheescake Factory it was 10 minutes before closing at midnight, and Yvette and Christina had been waiting for us for half an hour. But it was a lovely dessert, and we had a wonderful time together!

On Sunday I went to lunch with Russ and Amy Engevik, good family friends who were in DC checking out George Washington Medical School for Amy. We went to the restaurant in the middle of Union Station and then walked over to the White House and enjoyed the lovely day. It was really nice seeing people from California!

I then went with Zack, Mark, Kati and Abigail, who we ran into at the Metro, to a 5 p.m. service at Grace DC, which was definitely an interesting experience. I'm not quite sure how to classify that church. It was traditional in some senses (some of the music, the many different, almost ritualistic prayers) but then modern in others (some of the music, the involvement of fellowship). It was a longer service than I'm used to (almost 2 hours!), but the message on frustration was really good. And then we had an interesting Communion experience ...

So at Grace DC you go up to the front to take Communion and there are several different bread and drink options, two of which are of course wine and grape juice. Zack and Mark were in front of me, so I followed their lead and got the drink from the first platter and then went to the side to take it. Sidenote: These Communion glasses were massive!! At least five times the size of the dinky cups usually used. So anyways, it just took the first taste for all of us to realize that we had grabbed the wine. But we couldn't jut discard the full cup in the bin, so we choked it all down. So essentially, we broke the WJC covenant as well as our schools' individual contracts by accident. All because of Communion!

Then when I got back, Rachelle and I made chicken alfredo for dinner, and it went perfectly. Quite the uneventful cooking experience after chicken marsala! We were quite proud of ourselves, and we had an amazing dinner of chicken alfredo, spinach salad and cookies! And then we all went to work on our apartment chores, and I toiled to clean our disgusting kitchen, and it looks SO much better now!

Also, the weather has been amazing for the past few days!!!