I had the fortunate experience of getting a tour of the library at Catholic University and the basilica there. I had no idea there was such an impressive church in DC! And it is rarely advertised, which should be a crime.

But we started off walking the grounds at Catholic University.

We really wanted to spend some time reading so I got a bit of quality time in with George R. R. Martin!

I still got a good view of the basilica and got to see some interesting books. I do love the stacks in libraries!

After a successful library trip (where both reading and napping occurred), we walked across the yard to see the basilica.

The inside was gorgeous. I don’t know how this doesn’t get put on lists of places to see when visiting DC. I mean, I know it isn’t exactly near a lot of other locations that are hot spots, but it shouldn’t be forgotten just because of that!

The crypts under the church didn’t really have a lot of dead bodies but it did have a lot of columns. And I got to meet the pope!

So as some of you may know, I fancy myself a bit of a nerd. I love being around other people who have passion for their fandoms and want to celebrate in all things nerdy. I take pride in being a nerd and take it as a compliment (not an insult) when someone calls me one. Everyone is a nerd about something, whether they want to admit to it or not.

So I decided to take advantage of the fact that Awesome Con (a type of comic convention) takes place in DC. I decided I would save the money of a 3 day ticket by volunteering. I’m so glad I did!

Volunteers are not allowed to be in costume/cosplay while working so I decked myself in a Star Wars tank top and headed to the convention center, fanny pack donned.

I was assigned to VIP registration and basically helped them with their tickets/badges and other needs. I also was the line police at times. Gotta keep these kids orderly!

Unfortunately, while working we are not allowed to take pictures. Which was so sad because I got to see some AMAZING costumes while working the front. Such as the family where the father dressed up as the joker and his wife and 4 daughters were all variations of Harley Quinn. They were adorable!

When I was off duty the first day I just walked around a bit but I worked until close so I didn’t see much. But after my shift on Saturday, I changed into a basic Beetlejuice outfit and got going!

First up? Adam West and Burt Ward did a Q&A panel and they were hilarious!

They retold stories of set mishaps and how many different ways Burt got injured. It was a roaring good time. The only stumper of a question was “What is your favorite ice cream?”.

After that I decided to hit the floor and see who all was around.

People put a lot of time and money into their cosplays and I respect each of them so much. It is so cool to see the creativity abound in these conventions. Everything from gender swaps to steampunk versions of your favorite characters.

There were some other panels I went to on Saturday and Sunday (Karl Urban is a gentleman and a star and should keep the scruffy look) but many of them requested no photography. And we respect that.

I did a little shopping before my highlight of the con.

I was going to meet and get a picture with Matthew Lewis. For those of you who don’t know who that is, he plays Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies. He is one of my favorite characters from the books as he gets a ton of character development and is the unsung hero. It helps that Matt got incredible attractive following the movies.

When I went up for my picture, I wanted to do something clever. Something different than all the basic pictures. So as I approached him, I asked if we could actually not smile in the picture and stand back to back. He grinned and said sure. And we did our best.

Goodbye world. I’m satisfied now.

There was a beautiful day in early April so decided to get outside and check out a local area of the Potomac. It’s called Great Falls and it’s due to the nature of waterfalls. When we arrived, we noticed just how busy it was and since Wickett was there, it was hard to get to all the sights.

We headed towards the main attraction of the park, the big falls.

Nature is truly so beautiful to behold sometimes.

And naturally I got a great picture with Wickett too!

I know that everyone says as a grad student you don’t really get a spring break, at least not like you get in your undergrad. But I was able to get a few days off to head north to New York City to visit a very good friend. We had lots of fun adventures which I will retell (some of) the tales.

The first night I was there it was Saint Patrick’s Day. So we went out and grabbed some beer in a kind of dirty bar (these are my favorite places). Following this we went to a burlesque show so obviously I can’t share those photos…

The following day we went for a walk around some galleries. They were so interesting, I need to walk through galleries more often. We even saw Zachary Quinto and his boyfriend Miles walking around! I almost tried to take a sneaky picture but he was out shopping and I didn’t want to be a bother. I just got hot and hyperventilated instead.

So what else did we do? Went to the Brooklyn Brewery. If you’re ever looking for something to do I would highly recommend it. You have to get there early because you cannot buy tour tickets ahead of time and a line will definitely form. But also, make sure you have breakfast or lunch because otherwise you’re bound to get drunk!

Then we took the ferry around Ellis Island and saw the Statue of Liberty. I had never seen it before so it was very exciting to me.

Overall, I’d call it a fabulous trip for me! Spring Break 2016 was a success!

I was crazy. I know I was. I feel it each time I sign up for a race and I definitely feel it after the race when I can’t move my legs. I signed up to run the Rock n Roll half marathon in DC in mid March. It is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Part of this is a little bit because I didn’t train as well as I should have, partly because it takes a long time and you have to mentally prepare also. I ran the 13.1 miles in about 2 hours and 15 minutes, despite walking a lot after mile 10 due to knee strains. Here are some pictures from me during and after the race!

One of my friends ran it also so we met up before and after and were able to get a picture together with our medals!

Don’t worry, I signed up to run the Army 10-Miler in October. So I’ll keep running!

At the beginning of March, we found ourselves in a bit of balmy weather! So Wickett and I decided to see if we could find any green in a local forest preserve. We hopped in the car and headed just 15 minutes north!

We didn’t really find any other humans on our explorations, but we did find some spots of green before heading by the Potomac.

Naturally we did a few photo shoots.

We wanted to get a little closer to the water so we headed down the cliffs.

The lighting was basically perfect to work on Wickett’s campaign pictures. Well we decided he should run for some sort of political position because these pictures are so great. You can judge for yourself.

“He will put his paw down against corruption and crime. Make your bark count, vote Wickett!”