I'm going to wait a moment to let you drink it all in.
Okay.
What I really wanted to do is find someway to have it be all quiet and then have THIS!
pop up and scare the hell out of you. But then I realised a) that's a tasteless and crude way to treat such a revered image and, more importantly, b) I have no idea how to program that sort of thing. But I do have a point with the pic, and that is to introduce to you the riveting tale of:Yes! We flew up on Friday morning to hang out with my bestest fren Gin and her lovely husband Paul--realised that on the plane this was the first time in my life that I had flown with--shh--a boy! That I am dating! That I actually like, nay, lurve! It was so very weeeeeeiiiird, because either I have flown back and forth from seeing a lad or didn't date him long enough to leave city limits with him (latter constitutes approx 99.9% of scenarios). So there was that. And then there was this!
Pretty much as soon as we deplaned, Gin picked us up and we sped off to the National Geographic headquarters. Paul won a silent auction, so we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the magazine, the inside scoop on how they make it, a preview into the next issues, etc. The pedigree of that place is unbelievable--stood in the boardroom which is exactly how you picture the NG boardroom to be--fireplaces as tall as me, large incandescent floor globe, artifacts on shelves, famous photographs on walls--with an ornate double marble staircase leading up to the room with an original mural by NC WYETH ON IT! Amazing. Anyway, it was very cool but a bit overwhelming and afterwards we simply had to go for a drink, kicking off the veritable boozefest that would become the signature activity of the weekend. That night we had a delicious din at an Ethiopian resto--my first time--at which I greedily (and unwisely) plucked the last lamb niblet off the communal plate, not realising that the underside of it was sitting in a ridiculously potent pile of chili powder. One fire hydrant later, I was enjoying VERY strong coffee and the best baklava I have ever had. Ever. Ever ever ever.
Next day, boys' choice: this is why we ended up at the Air and Space museum.
I'll be honest: this is not the Smithsonian offering I would naturally gravitate towards, but there were cool parts. Imax film that made me want to throw up? Check. Seeing the original Wright Bros plane and the Spirit of St Louis? Check. Fondling of lunar rock? Check. Okay, I'm done. Except that we stayed for 3 more hours. Meh. Afterwards we went to the cafe in the Hirschhorn sculpture garden where we proceeded to drink ourselves into yet another oblivion. Stumbled off into the sunset across the national mall, being all that we could be and proud to be Americans. Met up with Peetah and lovely gfriend Darcy at a hip pizzeria in or near Adams-Morgan area that night. We ate, we drank, we conquered--good times had by all, sensible Ginny touting all of us home and finished the night trying to play Taboo and Scattergories.
Sunday was wind-down day, rainy and grey all day. Grilled in between showers and watched movies. Checked in for flight earlier in the afternoon and all was well as we prepared to return home. Until 5pm, when we checked on the flight to find it had been cancelled and they put us on standby with no notification for the next morning. Unacceptable. After 45 mins on hold, we got rerouted to a flight out of Reagan that meant we had to leave NOW to make it. Sped to the airport in very substantial rain, got inside and line for Delta was, oh, about 100 people long. I immediately resigned myself to the reality that we were not going home that night.
Sent Rob up to the front of the line, as he had the greatest chance of producing results in this situation, whereas I had the greatest chance of flaying someone's face off and getting us arrested. He came back to announce that the dickhead on the phone rescheduled us for the next night's flight, so now we didn't even have any dibs on flights going out earlier. Stood in line for over a hour--we finally ended up getting someone on the phone whilst in line who rebooked us for 11am in first class out of Dulles. Okay, that works. While that was happening, however, excitement brewed: someone had left an open laptop on the ground about 10 feet away from the line. We looked at it for a while and I finally went to get a TSA guy--I mean, who leaves an open laptop and walks away from it for--at that point--better part of 10 minutes unattended? TERRORISTS, THAT'S WHO! So it was all very dramatic, and before long, there were cops and TSA all standing around it, discussing what to do. But by then, we had secured the rebooking, so we just got the hell out of there--picked up a couple of pies on the way home and had a late dinner with Gin and Paul, who graciously hosted us for another night.
Got to the airport in the AM and found a scrumtiddlyumptious Potbelly right next to our departure gate. Yes! They were serving Italians! But it was 8am! And I figured my stomach would be like, um, no. So had a brek sandwich instead, read a little, and before we knew it, we were on the plane in our swanky seats looking disdainfully at all the riff-raff boarding behind us. HA HA!
Home. Back at work now, clearly. Speaking of, I really should get on some things. But I hope you've enjoyed the weekend recap. I'm actually off on break from school until the 20th, so stress levels should be fairly reasonable. I may even start working out again. Holy shit!
