DC so far (in letter form)

I sent letters to my grandfather and grandmother telling them about my life here in Northern Virginia. Here is an edited version of the one sent to my grandfather regarding what's been going on with us the first two months in DC.

Dear Granddaddy:

Well, I am working on two months here in Northern Virginia. Things are going pretty well so far. I moved up here at the end of May and was fortunate to find a place to live with a guy in my church denomination. He lives in a town called Sterling, and Shae and I found a town home to rent in Sterling. Sterling is about 15 miles west of where I work in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, and around 30 miles west of DC. Getting into the city is definitely a chore, but Shae is glad I have put her and the baby in a nice suburban area with tons of stores and plenty of walking trails. Plus, my commute is not too bad since I am not going into the city.

Work seems to be going well. Challenging, challenging work, but I think I am really going to enjoy it. Mergers and Acquisition tax is a great, if not mind-wrenching, area to work in. I really like my co-workers and bosses. Everything is pretty high stakes when it comes to the work we are doing.

Since the end of May, I went to a reception at the US Capitol for Ole Miss law alumni. That was nice. Senate was in session so I was getting passed by a lot of Senators in the hallway going to the reception. At the reception, we had Chancellor Khayat, Dean Sam Davis, Carolyn Staton-Ellis, Trent Lott, Roger Wicker, Thad Cochran, and several other Congress folks I did not know. Donna Shalala even showed up as she is a friend of Staton-Ellis, I believe. As he always has, Dr. Khayat once again repeated how he can see the resemblance between you and me.

In mid-June, I went to the picnic celebrating Mississippi next to the Washington monument. I saw a few old friends I knew, but most were young interns on Capitol Hill so I did not know too many people.

I also went to a professional baseball game, at least some of it because it ran so late with rain delay, between Philadelphia and Washington. It was at the old stadium, RFK stadium.

I flew to Tupelo and closed on the house on June 28. Dad picked me up since Shae had already moved to Jackson with my parents. The movers got our furniture on the 22nd. After a family reunion, Shae and I started the long drive to DC on Thursday at noon on the 29th. We stayed with Leah in Crossville for two nights and then made the final trek to No. Va. That was a wonderful and very relaxing time. Weather was really nice and Leah and Grant really enjoyed seeing Brinson.

From Leah’s, it took me 8 and ½ hours by myself, but with baby and dog it took almost 11, and we lost the hour going to eastern time. I think we arrived in Sterling around 11:15 at night.

We stayed with my friend a few days before our furniture showed up on July 6. Since then we have been unpacking and eating at the myriad of restaurants. There are plenty of places to eat. Shae left for Oklahoma on the 24th, the day I left for my seminar in Tupelo.)

Brinson is growing fast and is absolutely adorable. His hair is getting lighter and he is being really good about all of the changes we are making. Maverick is hanging in there as well. Our townhome we are renting is 4 stories with three large bedrooms and 4 and ½ baths. It is too expensive to buy, but we are hoping we can rent it for a while.

On July 15th, Shae, Brinson, Maverick and I decided to explore the city a little bit. We drove on the George Washington Memorial Parkway where you can see lots of sites across the Potomac, like the Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorial. We went to Arlington and went to the statue of Teddy Roosevelt on Roosevelt island. The island is a little piece on conservation on the Potomac. Pretty impressive statue of Teddy – I had no idea this existed. Lots of trails to run on as the road remind me of church camp roads (of course, no cars can get over to the island as it is only accessible by a walking bridge).

We had a small shower which made things real muggy, but we went on over to Arlington cemetery. The first thing we did was find George McInvale Grant’s tomb. I found out that Aunt Matalee died in 2004, which my mom did not know. It was so hot and muggy that we had to strip Brinson into simply a diaper and a bib. I laughed and told her we moved up from the south and already had our baby in nothing but diapers! Anyway, Uncle Grant is buried real close to Joe Louis, the famous boxer. We saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown. Being older it kind of bored me, but I understand the pageantry is important to people. We then walked to President Kennedy’s grave, but did not really see the rest of his family besides Jackie. It was so hot we left after that.

I went to a small town outside of Charlotte, NC for a few days recently for work. We have not started going to a church yet, but when Shae gets back from Oklahoma we plan on pursuing that. Besides all this, it is mostly work for me and taking care of the baby and unpacking for Shae. Needless to say we are staying very busy.