Phone call

I called my parents to wish them a happy new year. They wished me one back; dad elaborated, at which point mom murmured something about how she would have added one or two things (work on my disposition? meet a guy?) but thought better of it.

They asked me what I did. I said I went to two New Years' parties. Mom than interrogated me about the nature of the parties.

Mom: Where were these parties?
A.: One was north of DC, one west.
Mom: I mean, who hosted them?
A.: Friends.
Mom: Which friends? When I tell you where we go, I don't just say friends.
A.: That's because I know who your friends are.
Mom: Well, how do you know these friends?
A.: The first is a former coworker, the second a grad school friend.
Dad: Are a lot of grad school people still in DC.
A.: A fair amount. I picked up one on the way from the first party to bring to the second.

And at the second, I was reminded that this friend and I had a problem: our names rhyme. This is a particular problem because we have a number of mutual friends, so we're often standing together at events they're hosting, and we're in a position of introducing ourselves one after the other. Or--I have a car, she doesn't, so we often arrive together--we walk in and introduce ourselves. At which point we sound like the cutesy twins. We've been through it enough that we'll make a conscious point of standing at opposite points of a room, but eventually we end up back at one another's side, and introduce ourselves consecutively, again, in verse.

Anyway, each parent asked whether I overstuffed myself--I think they forget that I'm vegan. Not that a vegan can't overstuff herself--I did it all last week--but at both parties, the only non-vegan fare was fruit and vegetables, so I just had those, and a little bit of champagne and wine, respectively. Then I got home--having dropped my rhyming friend off at the Metro--and had a big bowl of pasta, followed by some wine and chocolate. Because I eat carbs ;).

Oh: I'd like to point out that the vaunted Google Maps (i.e., the app on my phone) twice led me astray by directing me to turn left at no-left-turn intersections (from 14th Street (northbound) onto Constitution, and then from 16th Street (southbound) onto Harvard Street). Especially to the first party, I got the impression that my phone was taking me by way of the Ganges (though that was preferable than taking me by way of Wisconsin Avenue), but it did recalculate quickly when it was clear I didn't make the turns it initially told me to make.