I like chasing snow flurries.

The last few days have been lovely! I won’t lie, I have been missing Southern California more than ever (I just need a weekend on the beach and then I would be golden!!), but I’ve had lots of little fun moments.

For example, after I went running Sunday, I came back and had a skype date with my girls, which was amazing, and then Rachelle and I made chicken marsala. And as we were making it, it began snowing! Like, really snowing! The type of snow that sticks! So Rachelle and Coco and I, as proud California representatives, ran up to the deck and played in the snow for a while. For the rest of the evening it was just so beautiful watching the snow get whipped around by the wind. Then I watched some Arrested Development with Danielle, Jason and Rachelle like the good fan that I am.

When I woke up Monday, the ground was absolutely covered in snow, and it was still snowing! We had our morning session of class and then Coco, Rachelle and I went on the roof again and took some pictures … yes, we know that we’re really living up to our stereotype! Then after the afternoon session, the three of us walked out to the National Mall, frolicking through as much snow as possible and then chasing snow flurries out on the mall. It was amazing. And suddenly the Capital didn’t look so white …

We had corned beef and cabbage for family dinner, which was only the second time I’ve had it, and then Rachelle, Danielle and I had a paint-your-toenails/Arrested Development party. Beautiful. We had worship at 9, which was great as always, and then I stayed in the parlor and talked with people there for several hours. I got to talk with a few people in the ASP program who I didn’t know so well, so that was nice, and then I got to be horribly jealous as Alyssa told me about how her grandparents were flying her out to Palm Springs for the rest of the week … I would do anything for warm weather right about now!! Then Mark and I perused music on Alyssa’s laptop, which is always fun.

Yesterday I wrote three 300-word briefs at work! I wrote one on the man who will most likely be the next president and general minister of the United Church of Christ, one on religious groups supporting the investigation of the United States’ use of torture, and one on a psychotic police officer who lost his gun and badge after he reported that he saw a demon in the police department offices and is now trying to sue to get his position back. I had a lot of momentum going, so I was able to whip them all out. And I got lunch at the organic coffee shop/café next door, which was amazing! A shrimp, mango salsa and avocado herb wrap that came with a salad and pita chips – mmmmm!

When I got back to the apartment, I hurried to throw on normal clothes and eat my lunch leftovers because then I needed to go right back out that door. Tuesday night Bible study was actually a bowling night, so David, Mark and I walked to the Capital Baptist parking lot to meet everyone, and then we all carpooled (first time on a freeway since being here!) over to the military base in Virginia – yes, we went bowling on a military base. We had to have photo ID and let the car get searched, all for bowling, haha.

We had a really large group, and I ended up bowling in a lane with David and Mark, as well as a really nice girl from Georgia named Meghan and a guy named Tex. (I can’t remember his real name … but his last name is Walker, hence the nickname.) I haven’t been bowling in so long, and I was absolutely awful! I won’t even put my scores on here .... But it was really, really fun, and a few of the guys were nice and trying to teach me bowling technique … which helped some of the time, haha. Hey, after some instruction from David, I actually got a strike! I didn’t feel so bad, though, because Meghan was in the same boat as me. It was really fun, though, and so nice to talk to people in the Bible study and hang out outside of the church setting. Like I’ve said before, the people in this study are SO nice, and I would totally want to get to know them better.

When we got back to the apartments last night Mark and I were walking up the stairs when Rachelle yelled to me from Zack’s apartment. So we went up there and Rachelle, Zack, Mark, Chris and I talked for a while about lots of random stuff. Then Rachelle left to call her family, and the rest of us kept talking.

And then we took note of the mysterious package in their apartment containing a copy of the Constitution and a cookbook by an Italian named Julia who looks like Mark’s mom … as well as hundreds of those packing foam peanuts. Somehow Zack, Mark and I got into an hour-long war with the foam peanuts. I’m not exaggerating. The first 30 minutes we were keeping up our conversation as we threw them, but we got serious for the last 30 minutes. All is fair in war, right? We were very, very amused, and it got even funnier the later it got. I seriously need a better outlet for this sort of thing … like paintballing! Even nerf guns would suffice. But it was highly amusing nonetheless.

Today hasn’t been horribly eventful yet, as I’ve only been at work, but I wrote a brief on the division created among religious groups concerning the lawsuit to abolish DOMA, which would make the federal government recognize same-sex marriages and give federal benefits (tax deductions, health insurance, etc.) to same-sex couples.

Buuuuuuut, starting tomorrow I’m on spring break! Woooohoooo! I only get Thursday and Friday off, but I’m pretty darn excited!