D.C. - It's really hot.

I kicked off the official start of summer by visiting Marissa in Washington, D.C. last weekend. I had high hopes for the trip based on our Boston and Cape Cod adventures last summer and it didn't disappoint - except in the heat and humidity fields.

I landed in D.C. Thursday afternoon and met Marissa at the D.C. Court of Appeals where she is interning for the summer. I had every intent of doing a bit of exploring while I waited for her to get off work, but a monstrous thunderstorm had other plans for me and I ended up waiting it out in nearby Cosi. Luckily, the storm passed right when Marissa got off work and we were able to stick with our game plan of going for a row.

Bob, an MSU Crew alum who I met by chance in a bar in Boston once, coaches at Capital City Rowing Club and he had kindly offered to take Marissa and I out for a practice when he heard that I would be in town. The row was short but sweet and I'm glad I'm able to say I've coxed on another body of water - plus I got to cox Mar!

After another freak thunderstorm, we headed to Molly Mallone's, a local Irish pub, to meet Bob and Eric (another MSU Crew alum who I met by chance in Boston) for a couple of beers.

Friday Marissa had to work but I took the opportunity to explore all the "touristy" parts of DC. I started off walking part of the National Mall and ended up sneaking my way into a tour of the Capitol. I had never been to DC before and really wasn't sure what to expect from the Capitol - in my head I imagined it to be more of offices but in reality it is a magnificent piece of architecture. Unfortunately, the Capitol is currently under construction so many of my photos include ugly scaffolding and tarps.

I met Marissa for lunch outside of her office and it was a pleasant break from all the walking I had been doing. After lunch, I headed back to the Mall to visit the monuments. I completely underestimated the size of the Mall and just how hot it would be and I didn't get to see quite as much as I would've liked. I did get to see the Washington Memorial, the World War II Memorial (twice because it was a good spot to cool off!), the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean Memorial. I really wanted to see the Jefferson Memorial and the Smithsonian, but unfortunately time did not permit.

Friday evening Marissa and I went to Jazz in the Garden, an event held every Friday night in the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden. The band playing rotates but there is always wine, beer and pitchers of sangria!

After deciding we'd just had too much of the heat, we met back up with Eric at the Biergarten Haus, a German style beer garden with great outdoor seating and pretzels.

Saturday was by far my favorite day for so many reasons! Marissa and I kicked off the day with a run to the Capitol with stops at the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.

After quick showers and getting ready, we headed to The Heights for brunch and to meet Val!!! I cannot explain how excited I was for this. Val has been my best friend since fifth grade but I hadn't seen her in almost 10 years. It was SO good to see her and we picked up like no time had passed at all. Plus, the food and bloody Mary's were phenomenal.

Post-brunch, Val, her fiance Lauren, Marissa and myself decided to spend the afternoon walking around Georgetown. The campus is so pretty and the main street has some really great shopping. Again, I totally underestimated how hot it was going to be and complained about the heat quite a bit.

We had a tasty homemade dinner Saturday night - asparagus salad with egg and bacon, bruschetta, and of course, wine and cheese - with one of Marissa's law school friends. Another thunderstorm had rolled in and squashed our plans a viewing the Monuments at night but we made the best of it and headed to Nellie's, a gay sports bar, with a few of Marissa's other friends. This place was so much fun! Plus, I had potentially the strongest margarita of my life.

Sunday was a short day since I had a plane to catch. But we did have enough time to head to the Historic Eastern Market. We started off with heading to Ted's Bulletin, an old-fashioned style diner with a modern twist and homemade pop-tarts and boozy milkshakes - what's not to love? While we didn't sample the milkshakes, the pop-tart was delicious and so was the turkey club.

We walked through a bit more of the market, lingering in the cooler air conditioned portion, before we decided it was time to head back to Mar's apartment and hit the airport.

As great as DC was and as much as I enjoyed my trip, I highly recommend NOT visiting in the summer. Things would have been 100x more enjoyable if I wasn't covered in a constant layer of sweat. But I shouldn't complain, I had a great weekend seeing so many great people!

12 Non-Rowing Things Rowing Permanently Effects

I've talked a lot about the life lessons one learns when involved with the sport of rowing for any extended period of time. From learning that people matter most, to the difference between losing and failing, to being true to yourself - there's a lot I've taken away from rowing. There's also a lot of other thing that rowing permanently effects:

1. You will never drive past a river and not think, "I wonder if someone rows here."
2. You will think of your college years in seasons, not semesters. "Oh yeah, I took COM 425 spring of my junior year - I had to reschedule my final for Dad Vails."
3. 5:30 a.m. is still early, but you're kind of immune to it.
4. When you see a tall person you don't wonder if he/she played basketball you wonder what their 2k time is.
5. You hate the wind. Always. Because you know it will ruin any row.
6. Acronyms like HOE, HOR, HOG and HOCR aren't funny.
7. You have no reaction to seeing men/women in only very revealing spandex.
8. When having trouble explaining a concept to a fellow rower, you can always fall back on rowing analogies and know that they will get it.
9. You cringe (and sometimes confront) people who are "erging" at the gym because the way they are doing it gives you such anxiety.
10. You've stopped trying to explain the sport to non-rowers and just nod when they say they used to go kayaking at their families lake house.
11. You get ridiculous excited whenever you see rowing/erging featured in any sort of movie, TV show or commercial. (What rower did not freak out when they saw Frank Underwood rowing in House of Cards?)
12. You bond with rowers you've just met by discussing the weather at different regattas you both happened to be at. "Did you race the first or second day at HOCR this past year? We raced the first day and were so lucky because Sunday was so cold and windy." 

5 Tips for Studio Living/Living Alone

Guys, living alone is great. It really is. It's not lonely like I thought it would be and I literally do just about everything pants-less. (Don't get me started on the bad bathroom habits I've developed.)

But I think I've had a few key learnings in my three months of adapting to life in 350 sq ft apartment alone that I thought I'd share.

1. Do not buy anything that can't serve different purposes. I literally do not have the space for something that doesn't serve a purpose. And for that matter, multiple purposes. I don't mean this in the clever Pinterest-y projects that are like "turn your footboard into a dresser/work of art." Nobody's got room for a footboard in a 350 sq ft apt. What I do mean is, I bought my kitchen table with the thought in mind that it would serve a lot of different functions. I had debated buying a bunch of different furniture options to fill my empty corner (a bar cart, a small sofa, a nice chair) but ultimately landed on a kitchen table and two chairs. This is because I can obviously sit and eat a meal at it, but I can also prep food on it (because my kitchen counter space doesn't exist), work on my laptop at it, store random papers and nonsense on it, dress it up with a fresh vase of flowers and entertain my limited roster of guests at it.

2. Be practical in the kitchen appliances/tools you buy. I've always been very fortunate to have friends/roommates who are good cooks because I can mooch off their kitchenware. But when I moved into an apartment by myself, I became shockingly aware of how little kitchenware I owned myself. My initial reaction was to go buy a ton of stuff but evaluation of my limited space shouted otherwise. I have a couple of sharp knives and a good cutting board for chopping, a can opener and winer bottle opener and one set of measuring cups and I don't think I need much else. I don't have a microwave or a toaster and don't want one because it would take up too much space.

3. Meal planning is more important than ever. I'm not a big eater. I get full fast and get bored of the foods in my fridge nearly as fast. This being said, I'm ashamed to say I'm a big waster of food. In the past, my roommates would always clear my plate for me or finish up a container of mushrooms I no longer wanted. Now I need to make sure that what I buy at the store I'm going to eat. I try to be crafty and prepare a meal for lunches during the week on Sunday evening and try to buy things that I can repurpose for multiple meals and not get bored.

4. Do things regardless of whether other people want to do them with you. The skill of doing things on my own is one I've been working to develop over the past few years and has become a more needed one now that I live alone. It's really easy to just fall in the habit of not doing things just because you don't have someone to do them with. Now, if I want to do something and there is no one else to do it with me - I do it myself. I think it take a lot of confidence to do things on your own.

5. Similar to #4, plan to do things. It would be really easy for me to come to home from work everyday and just become a hermit. But I don't want that. So I make a point to try to pack my calendar with activities. Even planning something as simple as going for a run helps to break up the routine of coming home and turning on Netflix. I also try to make sure I have one planned activity every weekend to look forward to.