DC 10

1. Sharing a row with G and C on Alaska Airlines. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and Super Scribblenauts on my 3DS, quickly turning the screen away from the aisle when a puzzle required me to write the word "gun". Surprisingly good $6 cheeseburger.

2. Staying at the home of our friends G and J for two days. Falling in love with their dog Olivia as she curled up by my side to sleep, chasing squirrels in her dreams.

3. Smoked mac and cheese. Ramen with pork belly that melted in my mouth and chocolate chip cookies with red miso buttercream at Toki Underground. Wood-fired pizza. Rita's water ice custard. Lemon chicken. Cocktails called My Coming Out Party and Vanilla Chili Sidecar. Warm cinnamon sugar donuts. Homemade salted caramel and blueberry cheesecake Pop-Tarts at Ted's Bulletin. Char sui buns at Ping Pong Dim Sum.

4. Cards Against Humanity. "Pac-Man uncontrollably guzzling cum", "Oprah Winfrey sobbing over a Lean Cuisine." MechaHitler.

5. Hotel Rouge. Wax lips, an "intimacy kit", and caffeinated beef jerky in the minibar, though we used our $10 credit for more pedestrian things. Photobooth in the lobby where G and I mugged for the camera. Sitting in the bar eating our continental breakfast, Obama on the TV talking about Syria.

6. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Neon installations, a dazzling row of TVs, oil portraits of John Waters and LL Cool J. A Duane Hanson statue of an overweight old woman sitting at a table, reading a tabloid and eating a sundae; the ghost of my future, just add cats.

7. Spending time with our friends R and P. Free pirate play at the Kennedy Center. Terrace overlooking Watergate, the Potomac. Bonding with P over our shared love of Sparks.

8. The Mansion at O Street, a strange mashup of the Winchester Mystery House, a hotel, and a yard sale. Secret rooms behind mirrors and bookcases. Knickknacks everywhere you looked, all of it for sale. Yellow Submarine jukebox, John Lennon holograph, pachinko machine. Stack of Star Trek novels, a dollar each or $10 for 15.

9. Smithsonian: Hope Diamond, Archie Bunker's armchair, Kermit the Frog. Forensics exhibit with the charred bones of a murder victim awaiting his final peace. Butterfly garden, where one alit on a man's head, perched there like a barrette.

10. Home.