Community Blog

Here at The Wellington we try our best for you. We want your apartment to feel like home, it should because…it is! When you’re at home, we know you want to relax in a clean environment. We need your help though. Help keep The Wellington clean, it’s your home and your home always looks best when it’s clean! Thanks for everything guys, you’re great residents!

Photo by macwagen

Many of you may have seen on the Facebook Page that some of the residents of The Wellington community founded a Women’s Book Club. We asked Nicole Tripodi some questions since we wanted to feature the Women’s Book Club on our blog page and let you know what it’s all about!

1. When did the book club start?

The book club started just a few months ago. Danielle, one of our founding members, came up with the original idea and she and I met to organize it after finding each other on the Wellington Fan Page. We created flyers to recruit other members and posted them around the buildings. Now, we have a great group of about seven women that meet once a month.

2. Where and what do you do at the meetings?

We meet in a member’s apartment each month. We rotate “hostesses.” The hostess usually provides light snacks and drinks. The drink of choice seems to be wine. It is the hostess’s duty to choose the date, the book, and invite the group (by email or evite). We try to get the group’s input when scheduling dates, which takes a lot of communication, but it allows us to try and meet when everyone’s available. Our meetings have typically lasted about 2 hours as we discuss the book and get to know each other. Here’s an excerpt of an e-mail I sent to the group about our last meeting (not everyone was able to attend).

• Everyone enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird and we had a great discussion on the 50^th anniversary of the book’s publication, the author’s mysterious life, the need for justice vs. the need for equality and whether they can co-exist, and of course Boo Radley, Scout, Atticus, and the other lovable (and also the not-so-lovable) characters.
• Mimicking a scene from the book, Sandra served up a delicious homemade pound cake (among other tasty treats) to emulate a Southern society ladies’ luncheon.
• We got to watch the night sky develop from Sandra’s beautiful “penthouse” on the eighth floor and met her friendly cat, Ollie. Great discussion and great hosting!

3. What type of books does the book club read?

We prefer fiction that’s no more than 300 pages long. So far, we’ve read The Black Dahlia and To Kill a Mockingbird. The book for our next meeting is The Life of Pi, and we’re planning to meet to discuss it August 24^th.  The book is an easy and adventurous read about a boy stranded at sea with a hyena, a tiger, an orangutan, and a zebra. The end will leave you with a muddled sense of reality and, hopefully, many questions! I’m pretty excited about it (it was my choice).

4. How does the group pick out the next read?

The next hostess has the privilege of choosing the next book! So, at the end of each meeting, we will ask for volunteers to host. When we have a volunteer, we will ask her to provide the next read. We maintain a list of books that members are interested in, but of course the hostess can choose her own. Sometimes she asks for group input, but the choice is totally up to her.

5. Who can join?

Women who call The Wellington “Home” and like to read! We seem to have a lot of cat-people in the group for some reason. We could use a bit of balance, so dog-people are encouraged to apply!

6. How do contact you in order to join the book club.

You can email me at nicoletripodi@hotmail.com or Danielle at Danielle.todd@gmail.com. You’ll be added to our mailing list, so even if you don’t make it to the next meeting, we’ll keep you updated until you are ready to join us. Sometimes members don’t finish the book, and that’s ok. They are welcome to join the meeting, but be aware we’ll probably reveal the ending!

Photo by SoniaT 360.

In my apartment my bedroom is my solace. I go there to relax and of course rest, I enjoy my bedroom so much it’s the first room I decorated when I moved into The Wellington Apartment Homes. I made sure I had everything I needed to achieve the style and theme I wanted for my bedroom before I moved into my apartment.

Now that I’ve been living at The Wellington for a while now I change up some of my items here and there in my bedroom but overall I maintain the same style. Keeping your bedroom nice and cozy does require some work though. You’ve got to of course keep it organized and clean. In my opinion if you don’t keep it clean and organized you won’t sleep that well, it leaves things cluttered, therefore leaving your mind cluttered.

I use the 5 tips to keep my room accessories in their place.

1. Odd Number- if you’re planning on displaying your favorite books in your room use the Odd number rule.
2. Size Matters- People have always said it, when you’re displaying items and accessories you have two ways to do it.  Either way you choose make sure you don’t get out of hand and make the display too large. You can be symmetrical, which is more modern. Or you could be the opposite asymmetrical.
3. Don’t Over do it- Don’t over accessorize, while you may place them neatly around your bedroom it can still be clutter.
4. Show it off- Do you have a favorite piece of art? Show it off, display the things you love.
5. One step at a time- Accessorize one space at a time, don’t go overboard and don’t overwhelm yourself.

Photo by ooh_food

How do you freshen up your apartment? Whenever I have unexpected guests call in or after I clean, I use candles to freshen up my apartment. Not only do they smell good, candles give a warm welcome to guests. Vote on our poll and let us know what you use! Is it candles,  scented room spray, reed diffusers or scented plug-ins? Don’t see what you use on the list? Comment and tell us!

If you asked me about myself I would say that I’m a well rounded person. Why you ask? Well I’ve been lucky enough to live in Arlington and so close to D.C. The area we live in is so vast in cultures and experiences that I have the opportunities to grow as a person because of them.  America is known as the melting pot and I certainly believe that’s true. Washington D.C. is proof of the pudding too. You have different embassies around every corner and others are celebrating their heritage. Personally I think it’s great to learn about others’ heritage. Mostly because I love knowing the random trivia! (haha)

Our next international holiday is from the French! Bastille Day, the celebration of the Storming of the Bastille!  So why not celebrate as the French do and enjoy their day of Independence?  Events will be around all over the upcoming weekend and next week. Personally I like to keep it low-key with friends and celebrate what the French best are known for! Their food!

This year I’ll be visiting Fontaine Caffe and Creperie off of 119 S. Royal St. I cannot wait to taste the celebration. There will be crepes, salads and other French favorites! I cannot wait to enjoy a warm hearty crepe and a dessert crepe afterward. What will you being doing on Bastille Day?

Photo by Cyril Plapied

Are you celebrating the birth of our nation? The DC tradition of fireworks is showing at National Mall when it turns dark (probably around 9:15 PM) on Sunday. They’ll be launching fireworks from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. National Mall is the top spot to see fireworks.

Here’s a few places to view the fireworks from the National Mall show: US Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, East Potomac Park, Rooftop Bars in Washington DC, Rooftop of the W Hotel, or take a cruise on  the Potomac River.

What’s your favorite thing about the 4th of July?

*In case it rains, the fireworks show will be postponed until July 5th!

Image courtesy by J.W.Photography.

What kind of music do you like – reggae, musical, pop, R&B, jazz, new age, Latin, classical, or anything else? The Carter Barron has a bunch of shows for the summer. You’ll need tickets for the free shows and can pick them up at the Washington Post at 1150 15th Street. With some of the performances, you’ll need to pay $20.00 (plus handling fee) to get in. But who doesn’t love music!

Here’s the shows for July:

• July 9, 7:30 pm – (free with tickets) to see Neo Soul Night, V. Rich, Maimouna Youssef, and Afi Soul
• July 10, 7:30 pm – ($24) to see ConFunkShun, ZAPP, and Slave
• July 16, 7:30 pm – (free with tickets) for International Beat Night, Chopteeth, Sin Miedo, and Funk Ark
• July 17, 7:30 pm – ($24) watch Jerry “the Ice Man” Butler, The Impressions The Jewels

Are you a fan of summer concerts? See the rest of the shows this summer

There’s never a dull moment in DC. What’s your favorite activity in the summertime?

• Enjoying the Nationals play at sporting events
• See Outdoor Movies in DC
• Outdoor Concerts at lunchtime
• Visiting the Parks
• Soaking up the sun at Waterparks
• County Fairs

Tell us on the poll your favorite activity for the summer and we’ll write about it!

What would you do if you were locked in a bio-dome? The doors are sealed for 365 days and two special guys are stuck in the bio-dome.

If you haven’t seen it, “Bio-Dome” is a must! The 2010 Rosslyn Outdoor Film Festival is showing “Bio-Dome” on Friday at Gateway Park at dusk.

It’s a special weekend for all of the Dads out there. The Wellington wishes all the fathers a “Happy Father’s Day Weekend.” If your visiting your dad or taking him out, here’s a few places you may want to check out:

• If he’s an Italian lover,  take him to the Italian Festival in DC for traditional food from 11:30 AM – 5:30 PM at Casa Italiana Cultural Center on Sunday.
• With all of the great restaurants in DC, you can’t go wrong with brunch or dinner!
• Travel up North and enjoy the Manassas Wine and Jazz Festival on Sunday!
• With beautiful weather for the weekend visit the gardens in DC.

Happy Father’s Day again to all the dads!

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