Shopping in Friendship Heights

Up until now I haven't heard the best reviews about the shopping in Friendship Heights.

"The parking sucks."

"The parking is expensive."

"The parking is expensive even if get you get validation. And it sucks."

"The stores close at six"

"The stores don't open until the afternoon"

"The department stores in Friendship Heights don't have the same selection as the same stores in other locations"

Keeping all of these things in mind, I met two of my friends in Friendship Heights to go birthday dress shopping. My first instinct was to hit Neimans or the Barneys Co-op but I went to Filene's Basement first. The dress selection lacked much to be desired so we crossed the street and went to Loehman's. I tried on three dresses and none of them did it for me. I was just about to leave when my friends found me leaving the dressing room. They presented me with a pink Badgely Mishka dress that they found on a clearance rack in some other section of the store.

I went back to the dressing room area to try it on and all of the rooms were full. The dressing room attendant pointed us to 'the big room' so we entered. Imagine -- an enormous communal dressing room with mirrors on every wall. AWKWARD. I almost threw in the towel but they convinced to try the dress on middle school style.

Finally, after the ordeal of changing in front of strangers was over I looked at the dress and we unanimously agreed that it was the winner.

For my birthday I have a perfect pink Badgely Mishka dress (originally priced at $695...bought it for $70) and a super awkward story to tell every time someone asks me where it came from.

Also -- I had to walk an extra couple of blocks, but there was ample street parking at the reasonable price of $0.

The Target Trials, or Reason #346 for why it's time to move out of the Spring

Some things are inevitable, right? For example - you can't escape the law of gravity. You also can't escape Murphy's law or paying taxes OR leaving Target without spending FAR more money than intended and forgetting to buy an item (usually THE item) that brought you there in the first place.

The Target law usually happens to people who visit 1) without making a list 2) who are hungry or 3) are going out of boredom. I've done all three of these things and take full responsibility for them. The Cherry Hill Target has further complicated measures by epically FAILING every time I visit.

Today I went to a foreign Target in another neighborhood and saw two must-buy items. Since I was in the middle of doing something else, I decided to wait until I got home before making my purchases. I went back to what I was doing, went off to school for a meeting, and made the trip up 29 to Cherry Hill.

Well. Of course they didn't have what I wanted. Did you know that Zac Posen is designing a line of dresses exclusively for Target? Or that Miss Trish has special Target sandals with crystals on them? No? Well you're probably shopping at the Cherry Hill Target like me, because they don't have either of those brands.

Not one to leave empty-handed, this is what I bought:

• The Giada At Home cookbook (It was on sale for a limited time)
• The May issue of Vogue (It had Sarah Jessica Parker on the cover AND May is my birth month. Obvious)
• A bottle of shaving gel
• Nail polish remover (Forgot to buy cotton balls. Naturally)

Total: $30 spent having left without the purple Zac Posen dress OR the Miss Trish sandals with the crystals.

Target - 1, Me - 0

The Back-Up Plan

One of my good friends (whose name I won't mention) always says that if she doesn't have a family of her own by the time she reaches age 30, she's going to take matters into her own hands and adopt or find a sperm donor.

Sounds pretty intense, but it also sounds an awful lot like the new J.Lo movie "The Back-Up Plan." I saw the movie with some of my friends this weekend (including the girl with her own back-up plan).

Based on the last couple of romantic comedies I've seen (When In Rome, Leap Year, etc.) my expectations were not exactly high. Still, I was somewhat disappointed. Jennifer Lopez used to be so good in romantic comedies (Hello, The Wedding Planner!!) and just didn't measure up in this one.

Maybe it was just far too unrealistic...

2.5/5

DC Kickball Kickoff

To get everyone ramped up for the kickball season, the folks at DC Kickball threw a happy hour party at The Exchange.

For just $10, kickball players from every team in the league could come in mix, mingle and drink all they wanted. As you can probably imagine that made for an incredibly intense party. Sadly the first game of the season was "rained" out today.

Secretly, I was pleased at having an extra week to de-rust my kickball skills...

I'm not going to say yet which team I'm on...I'll wait until I regain my skills from the third grade.

The White House Garden Tour in Pictures

J.Crew Ad...I mean group shot.

In front of the fountain

The Vegetable Garden / AKA Farmville

The White House..

Date Night

Last night I met my friends Jake and Katie in Downtown Silver Spring to see the much anticipated movie Date Night. First of all, each and every preview before the movie looked REALLY good. No joke.

Before getting to the movie I sort of knew what to expect: some funny moments, some suspense, etc. What we got was just the right balance of funny and suspenseful (and gratuitous scenes of Mark Wahlberg sans shirt). I would actual see it again in theaters.

4.75/5

Cafe Green

Today I lunched at Cafe Green in Dupont with Katie...this is the meal we shared: Sweet Potato Gnocchi.

Cafe Green is an all vegan restaurant. The dish was pretty good, and definitely did not taste vegan. With that said, I couldn't get past the knowledge that the cream sauce wasn't made from actual cream. Every time I took a bite I got a little freaked out.

Call me picky, but I like what I like and most dairy products are pretty high on my list.

To make up for the lack of milk product in our lunch we got some fro-yo at Mr. Yogato next door.

I highly recommend Cafe Green if you're either A) vegan or B) not as picky as myself. I also highly recommend Mr. Yogato if you're into delicious guilt-free desserts.

Does this mean I can eat sushi and learn about my future?!