Poem for Sunday and National Harbor

La Noche
By Anselm Hollo

the wind   let loose in the dark
and the lights of the city   moving

the city is a great dragon   it is a procession
           it is on the move

but the curtains are drawn
the music unheard

see   men and women   preparing themselves
for the long journey across a room

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Adam took the SAT early Saturday morning, so I hung out at home and waited for him to need a ride home. My teenage cousin Garrett in California and my friends' kids in several states were doing the same thing. Once Adam was home, we had lunch and planned to go to the National Arboretum, which has had its budget slashed and will soon close three days a week. There was a bonsai festival going on as well as azaleas blooming, plus I-295 was closed for a stretch and we had to get off the highway, so by the time we got there, found we'd have to park at the edge of the arboretum and take a shuttle bus, we realized we didn't have time.

This is because we were going to meet my friend Annmarie at National Harbor where the Army has sent her for the weekend. We got there early, so we saw some of the tents set up for the wine and cheese festival going on there, and we walked along the waterfront to see the boats and ducks, which is where we met Annmarie. Then we went to the Peeps Store and Thai Pavilion, where Paul, Adam and I shared three awesome vegetarian dishes (green curry, panang, I forget what else), and then Annmarie and I went to Charming Charlie since she'd never been in one and they had lots of stuff on sale.

















Adam wanted to get home early enough to walk the dogs and go running, so we watched this week's Smash, which was having a Very Emotional Episode that made me feel pretty much nothing because the characters have been jerked around so ridiculously all season. We caught up on the Nikita we missed Friday -- not bad, not great, too much running around and too little Alex and Amanda -- then the OMGWTF Doctor Who episode that the awesome guest star couldn't even come close to saving for any of us; we are boggled that among four major female characters, none did anything memorable.