DC Diary

I boarded a plane bound for DC at 5:45 am this past Saturday. Jessica and I enjoyed a mini marathon of mother-daughter time. The details of our activities are below!

YOU ARE YOUR CHOICES
I finished my remaining chapters of this book enroute to DC. Do More Things That Make You Happy remains one of my favorite essays. Jessica shared that a quote of Eric Butterworth's in essay 9 had produced significant insight and healing for her;"Things may happen to you, but the only things that matter are the things that happen in you." Since my last blog was about inspiration, this quote resonated with me immediately; "If someone is stimulating and inspired, they have an infectious way of exciting and inspiring others." I will blog a follow up post on the book soon.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD
We were facinated by this intriguing fictional tale of the formation of the OSS and CIA. Matt Damion's portray of Wilson reminds me of his outstanding performance in The Talented Mr. Ripley, a top ten movie of all time for me.

CLARENDON
We spent Sunday in Claredon's Market Square shopping district having brunch with Jessica's college roomate, Kira Anderson, perusing Barnes and Noble and cruising through Crate and Barrel.

ANGEL photo
I took this photo Sunday afternoon as the snow had began to fall on the city. She sits directly behind the Dupont Circle Victorian Jessica resides in, overlooking a labyrinth path. The historical nave of an Episcopal church is visible just behind her, the only remaining portion of the church to survive arson. Her bowed posture reminds me of reverence, humility and awe in the divine.

THE SENSE OF PAPER
This is the book that I occupied myself with during the plane ride and weather delays back to San Antonio. The book's promise of obsession with and the eroticism of paper was marketing hype really. I am compiling notes about a future blog on sensuality and the concept of paper having aphrodisiac properties lit my interest. The redeeming feature was the recounting of the history of the finest handcrafted papers and their importance in the rise of popularity of English painters in the 18th century. There is a romance with a troubled artist and a journalist coming to terms with her demons after covering Europe's conflicts and wars of the 80's (the author was a correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph covering Europe's conflicts and wars of the 80's).