Dateline: WALSHINGTON

Had a great time in Washington this weekend, where I went down to surprise my brother Terence for his 50th birthday. After spending the night and catching up with my DC BFF -- aka Ken the Pilot -- I found out brother Bill had inadvertently told Terence I was coming -- oops -- but the slip did little to put a damper on the activities, which were based around an Irish-pub crawl marking the big event.

First, we visited our father and brother's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Between Bill's driving (he kept missing the turn so got increasingly rough) and my not being used to riding in cars anymore -- much less mini cars -- we had to pull over for me to vomit! 

My brothers thought it would have been perfect if I had done it ON my (alcoholic) father's grave ("It'd be a great story for the second book!"), yet I resisted  (But boy do I get car sick.)

We were happy to see that Wreaths Across America had laid some 90,000 wreaths on the tombstones. I can't tell you how heartwarming it was to see such a sight ...

As it would happen, I had just taken a photo of this shot of us visiting our brother Kevin's grave with our father years ago, which is hanging in the guest room of my parents' house. While at Arlington, I called my mom to let her know where we were -- she was just 18 when her first son died of crib death -- and she said she was "tickled" to know that her boys were all together for Terence's birthday, 

When Dad was interred, Kevin was moved to the back ...

On Terence's actual date of birth (Jan. 15), Mom sent this shot from his third gala, which hangs in the same multi-photo frame ...

The crawl began at Fado -- Terence was carded(!) on the way in, as predicted -- where we had adequate Shepherd's pie ... 

We had talked about going for Peri-Peri chicken -- it turns out DC is a hotbed of the mysterious "Looking" cuisine ...

but since Dom wasn't out front (as Lynn told him to be) we decided to skip it.

After Fado, we made the rounds to the Irish Channel, Irish Times, the Dubliner and then one-too-many at Molly Malones, which was playing the best music ever. (OK, not Irish -- but lots of obscure New Wave stuff this Irish-American was eating up!) 

Although he's not one to show it, I think Terence had a really fun time, as did Bill and I!

On Sunday I was in a BAD way. (There may have been some puking involved.) I honestly didn't think I'd had that much more to drink than when I go out in NYC, but I'm wondering if Harp (my beer of choice in an Irish pub) has a higher alcohol content than the usual stuff I drink at home. (OK, maybe I did lose count!). Nonetheless, I eventually made it to meet my two favorite Washington girls -- Kandy and Jean -- where we had a lovely brunch at Kandy's hubby's restaurant (Room 11) in Columbia Heights, an area once best known for the shotgun stalker who terrorized residents right after I moved there (again) in 1993! It had been a good year since we'd gotten together, so the hours flew by -- I adore these two! -- before we made a quick stop at the nearby Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond, which is emblematic of how very different our nation's capital is since I lived there. After dropping me back off at Ken's place on 11th and M streets NW -- another area you would have never set foot in when I lived there -- I was still feeling like crap and decided to see if I could catch a train home that night instead of waiting till Monday as originally planned. Ken had left for a full week of flights, and suddenly sleeping in my own bed seemed like the only way to feel better. When I finally got home around 1 a.m., Larry could not have been happier for me to be back in New York. And while I loved every second of my "surprise" visit to D.C., the feeling was mutual.