dc!

i had the pleasure of going to dc for nearly a week, courtesy of my new job. i hadn't been since i was 14 years old, so it was amazing to be able to experience the nation's capitol as an adult. the conference i was at took up a lot of my time, but i tried to make the best of it and was determined to visit as many of dc's neighborhoods as i possibly could. in the end, i got to hang out at a jazz lounge in dupont circle, at a french bistro and at marvin on u street, visited the eastern market, ate greek food in capitol hill, and traipsed all over the georgetown area.

i found the metro stops to be beautiful and inspiring. the size and architecture of each stop was amazing!

i got to attend a super fancy-pants dinner at the reagan international trade center. david gregory, host of meet the press, was the emcee! i told ya - fancy.

ever since i started following naomi davis' adorbs blog, the rockstar diaries, i've wanted to visit the capitol hill neighborhood to see what was so special about it! obviously i feel in love with the eastern market, housed in a historical building and home to TONS of fresh food, including meats, cheese, veggies, pastries and fresh flowers.

the georgetown area was perfectly quaint - but way more crowded than i expected. a few too many chain stores and gourmet cupcake shoppes for my taste, but it was a bustling neighborhood and fun to walk around, thanks to the perfect weather.

this painting reminded me of the little prince, my absolute favorite book!

georgetown was... georgetown. imposing, gothic, ivy-leagueish.

this marginally interesting church was the only building in arlington, va (where i stayed) i found worthy of a photograph

cheddar biscuit joy

i tried my hand at biscuits from scratch yesterday using this recipe. for a first-timer, i think i did pretty well for myself. fresh out of the oven, paired with marty's homemade chili (i acted as his sous chef in that regard), it was the perfect sunday night meal. i'm just surprised i actually had all the ingredients AND tools (namely, a biscuit cutter).

taj mahal at the square

my roommate has been working at the jazz & heritage foundation for a few months and one of the biggest projects she's worked on is the crescent city blues & bbq (!!!) festival going on this weekend. marty and i went last night to lafayette square (our favorite) to see taj mahal perform. we ran into a bunch of friends and got to see a blues legend - for free! thanks to roomie for all her hard work!

bbq, baby!

i have a newfound obsession with barbecue since my dad and i tried dry rub for the first time in memphis. since i resigned myself to celebrating with food this weekend, marty and i headed to the joint in the bywater for some brisket, baked beans, carolina-style pulled pork and mac 'n cheese. seeing as it was stupidly our first meal of the day, we (ahem, marty) went a little overboard and ordered three meals for 2 people.

marty and his two full meals

MORE big news!

i passed the bar! after months of waiting (and weeks and weeks spent studying, but that's neither here nor there) i FINALLY got the results - and i have passed!

this is, without a doubt, the only time in my life i've wanted a test result to be positive

anyway, my title is officially esquire. my friend maggie, who also passed, told me yesterday that her mother started referring to her as "maggie, esq." so now everything maggie does is soooo maggie-esque. it has a nice ring to it, wouldn't you agree?

to celebrate, a big group of us went to commander's palace, which is surely one of the most fancy-pants restaurants in new orleans. while i'd have been just as happy grabbing a celebratory po' boy and an abita, what drew us in was the discounted lunch menu and the 25 cent martinis.

mini-cocktails, courtesy of the owner after she found out we had 3 newly-barred attorneys at the table

my pork tenderloin with roasted pumpkin and liquified hazelnut

marty's duck po' boy

my absolute favorite people