Evening with the National Symphony Orchestra

Instead of putting on my sweat pants and watching Sex and the City on a Friday night, I decided to go out and explore one of DC's not so hidden gems.  After work, I got onto the metro and headed towards Georgetown.  On the edge of Georgetown's waterfront sits the premier stage for preforming arts for DC: The Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center has three stages for theater, opera and concerts. Between the stages run two amazing hallways that display all of the U.S. state and U.N. nation flags. Also, The Kennedy Center hosts free shows for the public every night at 6 pm on the Millennium Stage. These shows range from puppet shows to jazz bands. The Millennium Stage is located in the back corner of the center.

Last Friday, I went to see the National Symphony Orchestra Prelude on the Millennium Stage featuring a small part of the orchestra.  To get to The Kennedy Center, I had to hike from Foggy Bottom, which required me to put on blinders and miss the fact that there was a free shuttle. But I was able to catch the second half of the performance; it was enough to be impressed with the talent and grandeur of The Kennedy Center. All in all, Focus Foxies, I consider my little adventure a success and pleasant departure from the usual Friday night activities. Don't take my word for it; watch the show in the link below!
Link to the Show

Halal Grill

Stardate 65340.1

12:09 - In L'Enfant Plaza, food trucks gather from around the district in masses for lunch. Lucky for me, I live/work close by. For those Focus Foxies not familiar with food trucks, they consist of a restaurant in a truck/moving van that rolls to where the people are.  These trucks do not resemble the 'roach coaches' on a construction site. Owned and operated by a different chef, each truck specializes in a different type of cuisines. For example, 'Feelin' Crabby' offer crab cakes, 'Cajunators' dish out po' boys, AZN Eats serves Korean, and Basil Thyme sells Italian. New people often get confused with all of the selection available in food trucks.  One way to know you are choosing a good truck is to check the line.  Long lines equal awesome food. Be patient with the wait time, padawan; good things will come.

As a hungry lunch goer, I patronized the food truck Halal Grill this week. Halal Grill specializes in Halal kabobs, and bonus, it is one of the cheaper trucks out there. The menu includes chicken on pita, gyro on pita, and kabobs on rice. I ordered a gyro on pita which consists of a warm, freshly baked pita, a salad of lettuce, tomato and red onion, seasoned gyro, and special sauces. I ordered mine spicy, so they delivered my pita with a punch of flavor. My order came out to be $6. It could feed two of me for lunch, but I soldiered through eating the whole thing. I am not saying it was easy eating my body weight in pita; I am saying it was delicious.

Drag Racing

Stardate 65319.8

12:00 - On the Tuesday before Halloween, the infamous High Heel Drag race happens in Dupont Circle.  This race does not include men in hot cars, but it does involve sweaty men in drag.  Each year the best Drag Queens around the capital come out to strut their stuff and race in high heels.  This race is not a new event to D.C.; these ladies have been crossing the line for 25 years.


Before the race, each Queen can parade around, show off their look, and rally support. We saw all types of Drag Queens out! We met Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth of England and Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice.  Princess Beatrice even wore her hat from Kate and Will's wedding. We saw the Olson twins, Michele Bachmann and Paula Deen.  Side note: One of my undergraduate friends actually knows Paula Deen. So, I know somebody who knows someone. It's kinda big deal.  Several versions of the black and white swan competed against each other for attention. And for your viewing pleasure, the flight attendants from Pan Am showed up. When the race started, these ladies flew past us.  No matter who you came as if you wanted to compete to win, you had to wear 2 inch heels. I only caught a small video below of the race:

Focus Foxies, you know the deal. Nobody holds a candle to these ladies in their red high heels.

Taste of Morocco

Stardate 65317.1

12:12 - Groupon makes you do silly things.  I grew up in too Polish of a household not to be familiar with coupons, but Groupon is a different kind of beast.  Based on a Groupon buy, a pack of us headed out to Arlington to try Taste of Morocco, a supposed authentic Moroccan place, last Saturday.  Even by my standards, this place was shenanigans from the start.

First, they could not accommodate 7 people in a half empty restaurant. Second, they would not uphold the Groupon deal to its fullest so we worked out a deal to accept a few. From there, we ordered.  Focus Foxies, I was craving great hummus, and I got some mediocre stuff.  I still devoured the whole plate. My original intention was to share with the table, but I failed hard.  My second course was a chicken bastilla. For those not familiar with Moroccan food, a bastilla is a dish with a baklava crust and a marinated chicken and almond inside with sugar and cinnamon top. The bastilla tasted delicious; it was a dessert and meal all in one.  However, the meal was overshadowed by the the belly dancer.  When the music turned up to blaring and the belly dancer came out, we got into it. A couple of us, including yours truly, danced with her.  But after the following 30-45 minutes of her dancing, grabbing children from tables to dance with her, and soliciting donations, we just wanted our food. I know its a lot to ask...at a restaurant.


The most shenaniganny of the whole experience was the waiter/manager. He went back on the Groupon deal with made with him. He bargined with us, saying that his staff worked for free and the lights cost money to turn on "if we accept all your groupons, what do we make? Please, let us make some money."  I wanted to tell him back that I have been sitting here for two and half hours, and I want to go home, please. Focus Foxies, I will tell you how this guy makes his money by charging a 22% service charge on the meal, which he did.


After almost 3 hours, we finally got out of the Taste of Morocco, but could not get the taste of bad service out of our mouths. I would not recommend this restaurant even as a take out place. It is too expensive for the food quality and too scammy to patronize.

Rustico's Oktoberfest

Stardate 65302.8

07:00 - On the nicest of fall days, I ventured out of the district to Alexandria, Virginia to attend Rustico's Oktoberfest. I started off by taking a picture at the Braddock Road Metro Station. It is not as odd as you might think.  Those of us taking public transportation got a free mug or 5 tickets towards food and beer.  With my picture, I trekked to Rustico, a pizza place related to the bar ChurchKey, for an Oktoberfest like no other.  This version was a Bloc Party. The beer lovers of NoVa and DC decended on this bloc like sharks to blood.  With the amount of people there, we  were going to need a bigger bloc. I got my 21 year old wrist band and pushed my way towards the ticket line.  I dropped $20 on tickets, got my awesome mup, and entered the promise bloc.

I am not new to beer, but I am new to Oktoberfest.  This Bloc Party had huge tents with beers from local and international breweries that brewed pumpkin ale, marzen, oktoberfest, and stouts.  I tried a pumpkin ale for the first time; Dogfish Head pumpkin ale did deliver (see picture). Side note: I poured the beer into my mug too quickly and my cupeth runeth over. So I had to do some quick emergency evacuation of the beer.  Needless to say, I had to decide pretty quickly if I liked that pumpkin ale.  Other beers I tried include St. George's Oktoberfest (twice) and some fancy 9 ticket international beer. Some fun beer facts: Pumpkin Ale is an American invention according to a rather gigantesque German man. Good work, America! Next, my favorite beer, the hefeweizen, is a Southern Germany tradition, and the Northern Germans drink pilsners.  So as my (apparently from the North of Germany) new German friend told me, my beers would be safe from him.


As the first time at any Oktoberfest, Rustico's Oktoberfest did the trick.  So much so that I want to save up to go to the big Oktoberfest in Shirlington next year.

Columbus Went to the Zoo

Stardate 65286.9

12:02 - On Columbus Day, I decided to get in touch with my wild side.  I figured my wild side could be found at the National Zoo. OS I went with a "meet-up" group to the zoo to see all of the awesome animals.  For those of you not familiar with "meet-up" groups, they are online groups of people that get together to hang out and do fun things. Being the first time I was apart of a "meet-up" group, the hype met my expectations. The specific group that I am a part of is the "20s and 30s DC and Arlington Group."  So far there are less than 350 members, but they seem like they do a number of fun things i.e. go to the zoo.  The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian Institute so you get in free. One of the major benefits to living in this city is free entrance to tons of places. And like all Smithsonian places, the Zoo is awesome. However, I must say that there is a decidedly lack of foxes and penguins in the zoo.I did not let that get me down because this zoo has Pandas and lots of them.  The Red Pandas recently had cubs, but they were not on display.  So we saw Red Pandas snoozing in a tree. We got to tower of elephants by walking the Elephant Bridge. Because of the great weather, the big cats were outside and frisky. Amazonia had free range monkeys, which were pretty fun if you stayed out of their splash zones.  We even saw a baby gorilla.  Well, he is technically two years old, but he looks so small next to his six foot Dad. Overall, the Zoo was a great way to spend a Monday off in the city.

What A Little Girl's Made Of

Stardate 65281.5

12:00 - Last Sunday, I went to the double bout opener for the DC Roller Girls, which featured Scare Force One vs. Cherry Blossom Bombshells and DC Demoncats vs. Majority Whips. For me, the roller rink has become synonymous with broken hearts, the “love of my life” skating with someone else, and I believe Maroon 5's 'She will be loved' was involved. These ladies are opposite of me crying in the restroom. If you want a fight with them, you are going to get one, and you ain't even seen them crazy yet. They will show what a little girl’s made of roller blades and hip checks.

This full contact sport pits two teams of five women against each other. The teams consist of four Blockers and one Jammer; the Blockers stick in a pack and try to block the opposite team’s Jammer from passing. Each opposite team Blocker a Jammer passes around the rink scores a point for the Jammer’s team.  Blockers can hip check, booty block, and shoulder charge, but they cannot elbow or shove.  At one point, I saw two women collide with one woman tripping over the other’s head, rolling over her face, and skating away.  The woman on the ground just hopped back up and skated for the pack.

The opening bouts pulled in a great crowd. The first bout was a blowout with Scare Force One mopping the floor with the Cherry Blossom Bombshells. The second bout featured a brand new team majority Whips who beat the DC Demoncats by one point.  Focus Foxies, you are probably wondering which team I support. Considering only one team lost after having a double digit lead at half time, it is a pretty obvious whose side I want to be on.  DC Demoncats, you may have had a disappointing loss on Sunday, but you now have a lifelong fan in this Aggie.

A huge part of the sport is coming up with a name and number.  Each player makes up a new fierce name and a number to match that.  With these names, such as Obitchuary, Ovary Action, Stabagail Adams, and Nasty Pelosi, these women will terrify.  Also, each woman gets an introduction as they skate around the rink before the bout. For example: “She will wreak havoc every 28 days; its number 28 days Ovary Action.” If I ever I became a Roller Girl, I would need a kickass name and introduction.  I am thinking something like this:

“Swift like a fox, killer like a ninja. This Roller Girl will have her way with you. It’s number 2010 Foxy Vengence.”

This Sunday was awesome to watch women leave it all out on the floor in a tough brawl.  Most people think that football players have it rough. Their tackles may be big, but Roller Girl’s hits are bigger.

Focus Foxies at the game: Kat and Simon