Hangin' with the fam!

Grandpa and Grandma invited us to go out with them last night! I was so excited to hear G-pa was healthy enough to be hitting the town again-after a tough battle with a broken back and pneumonia (at the same time)-it didn't matter in the slightest where we were going. It could have been the National Dog Show or a rousing round of curling for all I cared.

Not what we saw, sadly...

Good news for me, not only did I get to spend precious time with the family, but we got to see The President's Own Marine Corps Band (think John Philip Sousa) perform everything from The Star Spangled Banner to Aaron Copland and the world premiere of the guest conductor's, Gerard Schwarz, piece: Above and Beyond. Strathmore always rocks, the music was incredible, and I could have watched Grandpa in awe over the percussion section all night. And it didn't really bother me that the average age of concert attendee was 45 years older than me. I just thoroughly enjoyed Grandpa's subsequent inability to shut up on the way home about how cool the drums were.

A Day in VA!

I was very excited to FINALLY get a call from the language service: they needed a Romanian interpreter for a court case in Stafford!! So I did everything I was supposed to: studied up with my dictionary and some of my favorite people in Romania, tried to learn the legal jargon, and even called the court the day before to be sure my case was still on the docket. After all that and an hour drive...Doamna Romanca didn't come. Oh well, it was probably better to have an opportunity to sit and listen to actual cases without the pressure of interpreting. I got the words I should have studied and feel a lot more confident about translating the next time they need me.

Plus, bonus! I got to spend the day with Annie: ate a delicious strawberry chicken salad and then she took me to the Marine Corps Museum, which was a lot more awesome than I was expecting. I have seen it several times driving south from Maryland, always pointing up in Quantico at a 45 degree angle. It was fun to see inside. It also happened to be snowing (yeah, two days after April-esque weather) so we decided it was the perfect cold day activity.

Spending time learning more about a branch of my military and some of their incredible sacrifices for my freedom=time well spent.

Bet ya didn't know the architecture symbolizes the flag raised over Iwo Jima

The flag raised and flown at Iwo Jima