Live from the DMV

That would be the DC-Maryland-Virginia region of the country, not the Dept of Motor Vehicles in case anyone is confused. I've been on a fun little mini holiday this past week, hanging out with my daughter in Washington D.C. Inside shopping malls in Washington D.C. might be more accurate, but it's all been fun. We like to shop and spent most of Saturday doing just that. In fact, I think I may have accidentally treated her to a new winter work wardrobe. I'd only planned to get her a couple pair of nice trousers for work but when you are this adorable every single thing you try on is adorable too. She has a job that requires a certain level of dress and since this is her first winter in the big city she truly did need to update her closet and it was fun to help.

Every good shopper knows you need a break to rest your feet now and then so we sat down on a bench in the mall to have a cup of tea and watch the world go by. As we sat there talking we noticed three men in suits walking closely behind two teenage girls. I don't mean that in a creepy way. The message they were sending was more like 'come too close and you'll regret it'. The 'suits' were wearing lapel pins and ear pieces and we knew right away they were Secret Service. Really, who wouldn't notice three men walking around the mall in suits in the middle of a Saturday afternoon?

Daughter1 said maybe it was one of the Obama girls so really subtle like, ahem, she followed them into Brookstone. She had her trusty phone camera at the ready and I texted her not to get arrested. She's used to my paranoia so she just laughed and was back a minute later saying it definitely was not a member of the first family. We could see the 'suits' placed in and around the store entrance and we knew it was somebody. Naturally we felt an urgent need to look at pillows in Brookstone. Come on now, you know you'd have done the same. Once I got a look at the face of the 'dad' with the girls I knew it was Eric Holder (US Attorney General). I imagine the Secret Service has to spend a lot of time doing stuff like this, traipsing around a mall in a suit on a Saturday afternoon. I imagine too, if you're in that line of work, a boring day is also a very good day.

After our little escapade we went to see a movie-Beauty and the Beast. Don't judge-we weren't the only people over the age of 8 in the theatre. That movie was a favorite in our house back in the day and it's every bit as good 20 years later. We picked up on a few of the little details we didn't notice way back when and decided even a cartoon set in a small French village makes us long for the provincial life. I love the message in this tale as old as time. Belle loves books and she knows that what's on the inside of a person matters most. We might have sung the songs all the way home....

'I want adventure in the great wide somewhere...I want it more than I can say...'.

Sigh.

Daughter1 and I agreed we have a whole lot in common with Belle.