I'm Chegging Baby, Go 'head Baby!

Who wants to pay a wad of cash for textbooks? Not yours truly. I’m Chegging, baby.

Seriously, go to Chegg.com where you can rent textbooks rather than buy them. You’ll save between 65%-85%. Yes, I’m serious. I saved $119.00 on my books this semester!

Just search for the books you need and order. Chegg ships them to you super fast and when your term ends you just ship them back for free. And guess what? They plant a tree for every book that’s rented. Pretty cool right? and not to forget green! I also sold some of my old textbooks that were taking up space and made $40 and when you're in college cash is cash!

So head on over to Chegg.com and use this special promo code CC103103. You’ll get an extra 5% off your order. Tell them 2b sent you!

Every year Wise and I plan to go out to the Blue Ridge Mountains to check out the foliage and well every year we forget. I’m determined that this year we won’t miss it even if it means just a quick walk over to Rock Creek Park to catch a glimpse and use our dusty DSL. Hell maybe we’ll even take a picture worth putting into my homemade mosaic frame that is still sitting empty from last summer. Below is a excerpt from Tripcart.com they have list of all of the DC/Baltimore Metro Foliage tours.

Washington, DC Fall Foliage Tours
A well planned long lunch hour or morning walk can take you from running the government of the United States to watching trees turn bright shades of scarlet and gold, right in the heart of the District of Columbia. Recommended spots are:
• Hiking Ridge Trail in Rock Creek Park: The trail reaches the highest point in the park, on Glover Road near the Nature Center. Closer to the creek, foliage views are best along Beach Drive.
• Theodore Roosevelt Island: Take a hike along the 2.5 miles of trails of this wooded refuge in the Potomac. Access is from the Northbound George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia. The Rosslyn Metro Station (Blue and Orange Line) is 15 minutes by foot.
• The Tidal Basin: The thousands of cherry trees around here, so famous in the spring, put on a nice show in the fall as well. The 5000 trees on DC's famous mall also make this a good spot for a lunch break.
• National Arboretum: Located in the northeast section of Washington, DC, the Arboretum contains a vast collection of trees that brim with a variety of colors throughout the autumn, with the dogwoods open up the season in late September and the willows still going strong until December. The best foliage displays are in the Asian Collection, the Fern Valley Native Plant Collection, and the Gotelli collection.
• Take a river cruise on the Potomac leaving from Washington Harbour in Georgetown. See the main sights of the Capitol with fall colors to boot. The cruises are frequent, last under an hour, and cost about $10. Alternatively, you can rent your own canoe or kayak nearby, in front of the Kennedy Center, and explore the beaches and coves of Theodore Roosevelt Island. • Walk the side streets of Georgetown or stroll along the Potomac. This is a good idea almost any time of the year.

Shopping Green!

Today I was invited to an Au Revoir Summer Sale by TranquiliT by the Daily Green Diva herself Dawnia Bell! TranquiT was saying “goodbye” to summer with an awesome sale and “hello” to fall with a preview of all the eye catching greens, luscious blues and sweet lavender wrap dresses, cardi-shawls and much more. The owner Kim Wilson along with her fabulous assistant thoroughly answered all of our questions and soothed concerns about fit and style while serving fresh fruit and lemonade. The fall pieces weren’t available for sale quite yet but from what I saw I’ll have to save a few dollars (or show up with my fiancés AMEX) and get some key pieces for fall! Dawnia tried on several pieces including a black skirt pant (very popular amongst local belly dancers), a slate grey dress and purchased another cardi-shawl in black. I’m a scarf fanatic so I bought one in a tempered fuchsia and I’m already thinking of the many way’s to wear it as well as keeping my eye on the electric blue one as well. (Crosses fingers it will still be available in a few weeks!) Did I mention this line was green!?!? I didn't! Each piece is made of bamboo fabric and therefore it's highly sustainable and able to be worn for years! Talk about bang for your buck!

I have to appreciate the green movement in DC. Everyone is trying to do something, anything to be sustainable and improve the lives of others as well as themselves. We’ve stopped buying bottled water in our house as well as cutting down on using paper towels. We try to only use one car when possible and since we’re walking distance from the local Safeway we’re looking into buying a collapsible shopping car to take on our trips instead of loading up our trunk. I started working out at home instead of driving to the Bally’s in Wheaton.

Sorry to be preachy but we can all do our part no matter how big or small it makes a difference!

See you around Brightwood!

2B

Metropolitan Police
Department
Fourth District
for our annual Back to
School Book Bag Giveaway!

Friday August 21, 2009 4-7pm

Location: Field @ Georgia Ave. & Quackenbos St. NW
(adjacent to the Fourth District station)

If raining we will be in the Fourth District Station
Each child will receive a brand new book bag filled
with school supplies. If you know of a family that is
in need of some assistance this school year please
share this information with them.

The Metropolitan Police Department want’s to
make sure each child has a good start for the
2009/2010 school year!
Book Bags will be distributed on a first come first serve basis… so please come early!

There will be a second GIVEAWAY Saturday 8/22/09 at McFarland
M.S. (contact Ofc. Brodie 715-7476 for more information)

via Brightwood List Serve

Stay Tuned!

LC and I have both been swamped over the past weeks. LC with work and travel and me...well I'm looking for work as I travel. (No seriously I'm looking for a job! Help a sista out!)

In the mean time Prince of Petworth has posted a reader request about a condo located in Brightwood. Go on over and offer some insight about the property.

And we can also answer WDC's question "What IS in that area? It seems like there is no access to public transportation (14th street buses, I guess) or commerce. So why live in the city if you don’t want to be near the conveniences?"

Should we be honest and tell him..."nothing", "the 52 bus" and "atleast we're not U Street!"

U Street is Loud, Move to Brightwood

Breaking News: The U Street Corridor is loud!* We had no idea.

Any neighborhood that can spontaneously break out and have the largest party in the city after the Presidential Election in 2008 is bound to be a hot spot for bars and clubs. Oh wait…the corridor already had these bars and clubs before people decided to move in. And now they complain about the noise. Love it.

We here in Brightwood have that nice mix of a blessing and a curse. Wise and I moved here in October of 2008 from Columbia Heights and couldn’t have been happier with the cute brick houses and proximity to Rock Creek Park…and that was it. Besides Brightwood Bistro, Safeway, Subway, Pizza Hut and the Carry Out we have no real local clubs or bars.

What I’m trying to say is don’t move into the local “hot spot” and then complain about the noise, crowds and activity**. Don’t want to relocate to the suburbs? Move uptown. Brightwood to be exact, even Petworth is still relatively silent, oh wait they have some cool developments going on so never mind.

*Comments not so funny on DCist.

**Hilariously realistic comments on Washington Post Article.

Brightwood Day

V, Wise, and I strolled over to Brightwood Day. For anyone that didn’t see the three enormous banners on the intersection of Piney Branch and Georgia Avenue, Brightwood Day is a neighborhood festival that was held July 18, 2009.

As far as neighborhood festivals go, it definitely leaned on the family & church side. Everyone there was either over 45 years old or under 12. V wouldn’t let me go in the moon bounce, I was too lazy to stay for the tug-of-war (I developed a strong case of the ‘itis, more on that later), and given that I was wearing MAC makeup, I wasn’t going anywhere near the face painting. There was a large stage set up in the middle of Tuckerman Street where various performances took place. While we were there, a comedian did an act and a rather good neo-soul singer took the stage. The grassy area was lined with booths that featured everything from the Brightwood Community Association info, the Brightwood Heritage Trail, volunteer opportunities, over-priced jewelry, and anti-war literature. The anti-war literature looked kind of sketchy and given that I have a good government job that I would really rather keep, I gave that booth a wide berth. But V and I found out some really good activities and resources that we’ll experiment with and highlight over the next few posts.

Given that with the exception of Safeway, Brightwood Bistro, and the carryout, finding food in Brightwood is practically impossible (as far as we’ve discovered; if anyone out there has any suggestions, I would love love love to hear them), so I didn’t expect much in the way of festival food. There was a stand selling popcorn, water bottles, and cold drinks but there was a stand selling real food. The stand was from Haydee’s Restaurant and for $5, you got a Styrofoam container full of fried food. And I mean fried. There wasn’t a vegetable to be had, not even fried okra. I could feel my cholesterol rising with each chicken finger but it was pretty good. After wandering around a bit and shaving off years of our lives with the fried food, we were ready to call it quits. Especially since we kept getting vacation bible school flyers shoved in our faces. All in all it was a pretty good day.