We Went to Church!

OK. For those of you who know me, you know it's been years since I've darken the door of a church, but Tiff and I were inspired to go to the National Cathedral this morning and it was incredible! The structure and architecture was magnificent! Check out the stainglass picture, we saw a Black Jesus! The service was cool, too, but we ditched early. When we left the wind had picked up considerably and the temperature had seriously dropped. We think maybe it was hell freezing over.

We then went to Howard University, Tiff's alma mater, and that was great! We looked and looked and looked some more for Tiff's "brick". It has her name and the year she graduated in the Founder's Walk. We decided that when we visit again, it needs to be in the spring or summer and then we'll take our time and find it, for sure.

Ben's Chili was our next stop. It's where Obama had lunch a couple of days ago. The lines were outside the door and the parking was nasty. Tiff made the food run while I circled the block like 15 times! I've decided that to live in DC you have to know how to parallel park and since I flunked that part of drivers ed almost 40 years ago, this is not a place I need to live. Oh . . .the food . . . was fantastic! Unfortunately, the chili had bell peppers so sister girl couldn't eat hers. I promise it won't go to waste.

We tried to get to the concert on the mall, but the traffic was a mess and it would have taken too long to walk it because we needed to pick up my brother and his wife in a bit, so we decided to hang out at the Grand Hyatt. Remember, this is where Whitney (Tiff's sister) is staying. Also staying at that hotel are the following folks she's seen: Sidney Poitier, Al Sharpton, Desmund Tutu, Dorothy Height (Delta Sigma Theta past National President) Steve Harvey, Jeremiah Wright (can you believe he has the nerve to show his face here), Jesse Jackson and we all saw Hill Harper!!! Oh my goodness, the man is GORGEOUS!!! TV does not do him justice. Of course, he's maybe 5'2 and a buck twenty soaking wet, and he looks like he's 12 years old, but he's gorgeous nonetheless. No entourage, nobody hanging on him, it was just him walking through the lobby. Tiff and I have decided that we need to hang out here some more.

Another car ride, another missed turn or two and we were at the airport picking up Forrest and Jannie. They're here from Miami. We talked about the weather since they're used to 80 degrees this time of year. Of course, since they're related to me, they're going to bed early and we've planned a full day tomorrow.

Tiff's thoughts
OK- Shana here is your shout out! Faye has about a $3 limit as it is 7:00 pm and she quickly getting ready for bed. LB, at least I kept her up past 6:00 pm today but it was a struggle. We had another friend join us today, Renee,- she is out as we speak exploring the grounds of the National Mall. As the day draws near- the more excited I become. I can't believe I am here a part of all of this.
It was great to be back "home" at HU. Oh the memories there. Aliya, if you are reading this too- I was so happy I could walk the hill without snow or ice in January, made the trip manageable. Everything looks pretty much the same.. even got a picture of Howard China!! Really nothing has changed because the bookstore is closed in honor of the King holiday on Monday AND Tuesday.

A note about Hill Harper...
So Faye says she saw Hill Harper, it is true he walked right in front of us. I nearly beat Faye's arm to death trying to get her attention to let know who he was. So she actually saw his profile and didn't really get to see him until he made it the elevator.
Also, while we were at the hotel today hanging out with Whit... we started counting the number of fur coats. We assigned a point value to the different types of coats; on the trim, reversible of course men in fur got double points. We will keep you posted on the total as the days to come. Also, I was interviewed for some TV channel while I was outside of Ben's Chili.
Signing off for now- current temperature is 26 degrees (today was the warmest yet- at 33 degrees).