Two weeks into it

By the end of business on Friday, I had two clients (one residential, one outpatient), one session under my belt, and orientation completed. Monday is going to be a whirlwind of rounds, treatment team meetings, supervision, and straight up therapy. I have to say I'm kind of excited.

Friday evening I met fellow intern Jon and his wife Catherine for an outdoor concert at Short Pump mall...think Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin cover band. We sat on the second floor balcony and people watched above the sea of Lily Pulitzer, golf shirts, strollers, and pleated khakhi shorts below. Saturday morning my sorority sister Becky drove down from D.C. to hang out with me for the weekend! We proceeded to brunch, first and foremost, and on a whim walked into Cafe Gutenberg down in Shockoe Bottom...where we ran right into Jon and Catherine. Which is exactly what happened to me the weekend before when Will and I were in Carytown. Jon and I are both avid Richmond guide readers and seem to have similar taste in sights. On his suggestion, Becky and I went over to Belle's Isle via James River foot bridge, but not before we swung through the 17th Street Farmer's Market to peruse the sun dresses. We then returned to Carytown for window shopping and literally, cherry cokes at the Galaxy Diner. I had the foresight (and encouragement from a foodie supervisor at VTCC) to make a reservation at Edo's Squid, a Richmond favorite Italian restaurant, so when we showed up at 7:30, Beck and I pushed past the crowd in the doorway and were seated promptly. Great red wine, brocoletti appetizer followed by pork chops and mahi, and loads and loads of garlic and olive oil. The waiters just stopped by and directly poured it into our mouths from spouts. Just kidding. It was intravenous. We did not get out of there without trying tiramisu and gelato...so Becky just gave me a shove so I rolled down the staircase and fell out into the street when it was time to leave. You know, to disguise my waddling! We fell into bed by 11:00 and made it a point to sleep in, but certain gray gatos found it appropriate to bang on Becky's closed guest room door til she let them in at 7:00AM.

Today we hit another brunch place after a bit of research, mapping, and orienteering and gobbled up frittata and omelet at Lulu's, another funky Shockoe Bottom cafe, right next to the Farmer's Market and Main Street train station. I was surprised we didn't bump into Jon and his wife! The VA Holocaust Museum was four blocks away so we walked over and spent the next two hours in a maze of exhibits that chronology the experience of VA survivors, and the escape of one family, the Ippson family, from a Kosvo ghetto. We literally crawled through a tunnel at one point (I had horrible flashbacks to the Tactile Dome debacle, but managed to deal with numerous coping skills employed, i.e. self talk: "Diana, suck it up. You are not being persecuted by Nazis."), and sat in a replica hole dug to hide a family of 8 or 9 under a shack on a Lithuanian farm. Becky returned to D.C. this afternoon, and so next time we reunite it will be in D.C. for Ethiopian food and some sort of fine art event at the Kennedy Center. My photo album of Richmond sights is growing...click here for pics!