DC has a guest

...and quite a guest he is. The Dalai Lama is in town from July 6-16 (he celebrated his 76th birthday here) and is "spending most of his time at the Verizon Center conducting rituals and prayers for world peace and imparting Tibetan Buddhist teachings".

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness, the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives. - Dalai Lama  

Yesterday, we went to the mall to get Matt some new shoes for work (highly recommend Johnston & Murphy) and saw some women wearing maroon and golden robes, like the Dalai Lama. All of this, got me thinking, how little I really know about him and his customs. I decided to do some research online; here are some random tidbits of information--

• The Dalai Lama does not have dinner, he wakes up at 3:30am and goes to sleep at 8:30pm (my kind of bedtime!!)
• He is not a vegetarian
• His real name is Tenzin Gyatso
• "Dalai Lama" = ocean of wisdom + guru
• At the age of 15, he was recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama

Also, yesterday he gave a speech about achieving world peace on the Capitol lawn and over 10,000 people attended. Apparently he even gave some marriage advice and stated that women spend too much money on makeup, "Making your face beautiful is good, but in the mean time you must pay attention to your inner beauty. With inner beauty you will find a companion". 

I probably shouldn't mention this, especially in the same post as His Holiness, but yesterday I went to spinning and my teacher was let's say, not in the best shape. Which is totally fine and I'm not here to judge, however, when your butt hurts from that damn seat, you are sweating like a pig and minutes feel like hours, I would prefer to look up and see someone with the most rockin' body in the world. I feel like it motivates me, it gives me the illusion that if I kill myself in the class enough, I will one day look like her. Am I horrible for thinking that? Writing this?

As always on the topic of fitness, let me move onto food.

Last night, we finally went to Zaytinya, a VERY popular Turkish, Greek and Lebanese restaurant; we've been trying to go since we moved, but we never managed to make a reservation early enough. The chef and owner is Jose Andres, known for his several, famous DC restaurants and was recently named "outstanding chef of the year". The menu consists of "small plates", which seems to be the trend here these days and I actually really like it (you are not totally stuffed and wanting to die after the meal). Last night we had hummus, falafel, kolokithokeftedes (zucchini and cheese patties), urfa biftek (grilled sirloin), lamb sausage with potatoes and the best pita bread. The food was good, however, I do not crave this type of cuisine very often, so I'm not sure if we'll rush back. But, if you ARE craving it, this is the place to go.

I will admit to having recorded the first "Say yes to the dress: Bridesmaids" (aka: taffeta, trains and tantrums) on Friday and I'll keep it short and sweet--Say NO to this show.

Forrest Gump is on TV now, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get". True, true, true.

Wish tomorrow was not Monday again...

P.S: Please meet Yoda, the winner of the "World's Ugliest Dog" award--