NoVa... and Long overdue

So. I’m not going to lie… I kinda forgot about this thing. But today, I was instructed by a certain individual “busy” at her new job to give her some new reading material. So here’s to you, KJ:

I currently live in Northern Virginia. Yep. I don’t live in DC. As hard as that was for me to swallow originally (mainly because a particular glover parker called my new neighborhood “guadajarlington”), I am loving it! It’s way more fiscally responsible, I can still walk to all the restaurants, I don’t pay for parking, and I’m a 4 minute walk to the metro. Everyone in this town (Clarendon if you wanted to know more specifically the hood) is about my age and works around there or in DC. It’s kinda funny. It’s like college extended. If you want a better picture of this phenom, please watch the Arlington rap (http://tinyurl.com/yehbdvt). I feel like most of this could be true for many a hood across this nation but it’s sooo spot on for here. It was a lot of DCism’s but you can get the gist even if you’ve never had the pleasure…

The best part of my new location however, is that my precious little 1940’s house has Rocklands BBQ in our backyard. Now for those of you unfamiliar with this little spot of heaven, Rocklands is a great little restaurant that smells like home- especially on crisp, cool evenings, has great drink specials, plays all the games, and has TO DIE FOR sweet tea. Let’s just say, they’re starting to know Carrie (my FL roommate) and I by name. Which is nice. Makes you feel wildly popular and cool. Which is better than pathetic. And since we’re too cheap to buy a tv and cable (a whole different story), we tend to migrate to Rocklands for game day.

Now for all of you who plan on visiting, (just so you know, if at some point in the last year you said in passing, “oh, Abianne, I’d love to come visit!” just know that was basically a binding contract, and I will hold it against you if you don’t follow through), there are some things you need to know about this little abode. For one thing, our smoke detector is possessed. Not kidding. Last night, it kept on going off so we spent 45 minutes trying to get it stop until Carrie figured out a way to unplug it. However, even unplugged and with the battery out, it would still beep. So as we speak, it is wrapped in a towel and in the dryer in the basement so we couldn’t hear it last night. Said basement is also quite a character itself. Every time I go down there to do laundry, I let either Emily or Carrie know… it’s that scary. Well not really, but it looks exactly like the Home Alone basement. Which is intimidating. Hmmm what else do you need to know… I guess just that you need to come NOW! The leaves are awesome. Vibrant yellow, red, orange… so gorgeous! I’m tempted to drive off into the countryside every day I go to work. And my coworkers don’t understand my excitement about the leaves. I tried to explain that in my previous falls, the pine needles turn brown and then fall. They didn’t understand. Though I did find a pine needle in my car when I got it cleaned the other day. I almost missed them!
Ok. This is way longer than I anticipated. You get a gold star for reading all of this. And next time I won’t wait 4 months to post so it won’t be a novel!!!!