Old Soul

Based on the activities that I participate in, it seems like I should be 60 years old. I don't know why everything I'm interested in attracts members of the AARP. I guess young people don't scour the arts and culture blogs in DC. 

I recently attending a film series called "Hollywood on the Potomac" where it shows films set in DC. The movie I saw was the 1979 filem "Being There" with Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. The movie is a satire of politics and being a "white man" in America. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and recommend it. Just with the caveat that the premise is absurd. 

Being There

Every time I see live theater or visit an art exhibit I'm with the gray-haired crowd. I don't mind it. I just don't understand why young people aren't interested in seeing more than the bar scene and food trucks. Maybe I was just born in the wrong era. 

If you want to know where I am on any given weekend, just check the early bird special at Denny's and anything your grandparents would enjoy. :)

Just another manic Monday

[Mom, I'm fine. The ambulance wasn't for me.]

Today was a crazy day! I'm pretty sure I ran through every emotion possible: stress, disappointment, excitement, happy, reverence, gratitude, sad, scared, worried etc., etc.

I was planning to go to Arlington National Cemetery today because my ward planned on laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. However, as I walked out of work, it started to rain. I wasn't prepared to stand outside in the rain for an hour, so I decided to bag it and just go home.

Luckily a portion of my commute is over the Potomac River and I can see what the weather is like outside, and the sky was breaking and it looked like the ran had subsided, so I decided to get off at the Pentagon, and circle back to Arlington National Cemetery. I'm so glad I did.

I got to see the changing of the guard and the wreath laying, which I hadn't seen since I was 13. It was a pretty somber experience. And this time, 4 members of the military from our ward were able to lay the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. I didn't even know that we had 4 people in our ward in the military.

Carrying the Colonial 2nd Ward Wreath

Members of the Colonial 2nd Ward 

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

 After putting my hand on my heart and listening to "Taps," I just felt very proud and very grateful for the men and women who serve our country. I definitely have an appreciation for Arlington National Cemetery.


Although this was a very exciting experience, this was not the end of my day.

Tonight was my last spring soccer game. Our team is mediocre, but I have a good time. The other team scored in the first minute. (Luckily I scored a few minutes after that). I actually had my best performance of the season by scoring two goals (a scrappy one and a "bend it like Beckham" one. Unfortunately, the game ended on a sour note.

A huge collision at about the 40 yard line and the "knee snap heard round the field" ended the match a few minutes early. A player on the other team dislocated his knee pretty badly. It was gruesome looking and sounding.

I have to say that this is not the first time I've been somewhere when we had to call 911, but at least this time it wasn't life threatening. (If you want to know about the other time, just ask me about jumping out of the window of a burning building).

I hope the other player is able to recover quickly. It did not look good. But suffice it to say, I've had an intense Monday.

The slowest arriving ambulance I've ever seen

Beginning of Summer

Nothing too exciting has really been happening over here. When I get an idea for a blogpost, I rethink it and decide it's lame/boring/nobody cares. So here are some photos of some recent happenings that you may or may not care about, but it's all I got right now:

Tigers vs. Nationals game with Lynn

 Lynn and I took in Nationals Park after a rain delay rescheduled our game. The Tigers ended up losing, but we got to see a lot of variety from the bullpen and some exciting hits, so all in all, a pretty great spring baseball game.

Virginia Beach

One of my roommates and I went to Virginia Beach on Memorial Day. It was a gorgeous day. I finished reading a novel, got some sun, saw some dolphins, jumped into the Atlantic, and got ice cream. No complaints. A great day off of work!

Virginia Beach

Protest outside my office

 Every few months we end up getting protesters outside of our office. The last protesters had nothing to do with our office and they played interesting (read: obnoxious) music all day. At least these protesters were directly related to some of our recent policies, so I felt like they had better reason to be there. Nothing too eventful happened. I feel like having a protest so close to me every few months reminds me about how people really care about a lot of things that go on rather than just going through the motions.

Kickball

 I joined a kickball league with a few of my colleagues. It's enjoyable, but I will never do it again because kickball is just not an involved enough sport for everyone (read: I'm really bad).

Teammate up to bat

I wish I had more profound or interesting things to say. I haven't been dating lately... so I have no good stories about that. If you know anyone in DC who would be a fun/interesting date... send them my way ;)

Hopefully I'll have more to report on as the summer progresses.

Passport DC

Even amid numerous budget cuts, Washington DC offers numerous interesting and free events. I started following a couple of blogs that post events that are free or under $10. There is always something that I’m game to do, it’s just finding the time and the energy to venture off into the city to explore and enjoy.

This weekend, the Embassies hosted one of the bigger cultural events. You could go around to several embassies and tour the estate, watch videos or live dances, listen to traditional music, eat typical food of that country, and explore the culture and history a bit better.

I had limited time due to some other previous commitments, so I was able to spend about 2 hours in several of the embassies. Some of the smaller ones offered a view of traditional clothing and artwork with some sample food, while others had live animals, art you could create, clothing you could try on and a whole host of offerings.

It seemed like some of the embassies were kicking off their tourism season with the enticements of discounted airfare, spectacular views, and sandy beaches. 

A few of the embassies I was able to tour:

Right by the Embassies on Massachusetts Ave is the National Islam Center. It is a beautiful building and I took a few minutes to look around. 

You could go inside the building, but women were required to wear a hijab. There was a women outside the door who had a bunch in a basket and was dressing numerous women in them. Here is a photo of me wearing the hijab.

However, I was not wearing long pants (I was wearing capris pants) and neither were other women, and that turned out to be against the rules. I'll have to go back another day dressed appropriately. (In my defense, the woman at the door dressing me in the hijab didn't even mention my pants...)

Full Plate

This was a jam-packed week for me. I did something every night. And that is definitely not like me. Normally, I like to come home, eat something small, run to the gym, come home and catch up on tv shows that I haven't been watching. I didn't make it to the gym once... I may need to start going at 6 am... It's currently under consideration. I'll see how I manage this week, and then decide if I need to get up early to get the workout that I need.

I met up with a lot of great friends and saw a lot of cool things in the city. The Cherry Blossom Festival, Kickball on the National Mall, Busboys and Poets, etc.

On Saturday I met up with an old coworker of mine to watch the DC United game. We had pretty decent seats. In the throes of all the action and the screaming and bouncing fans, the "screaming eagles". (I was not anticipating standing the entire time, but it was fun!)

DC United ended up losing (2-0) to the NY Red Bulls. I seriously am always impressed by the athleticism and control that these soccer players possess. What can I say, I love this game!

Hanging out with the "screaming eagles"

My old coworker and I

Taking in all the action

I wouldn't mind going to another game. I can feel that the summer is going to be bursting with tons of activities... I'm going to have to pick and choose wisely! I may have already over committed myself... We'll see how everything shakes out.

Spring is in the air

Life definitely picks up when spring is around the corner. I'm still wearing my winter coat to work, but I don't think I will be for much longer.

The reason I can sense being busier as the weather improves is that I haven't even had time to check my blog in the past few days.

On Thursday, for Pi(e) Day, I was expecting my roommates to know about some parties that were going on (since they know about stuff like that), but surprisingly they didn't. I was pretty shocked. Well, we decided to get pie, so we went to Ted Bulletin's, but it had a 40 minute wait, so we went across the street to Banana Cafe and listened to interesting Karaoke with the pianist running the show. Then after 40 minutes, we went back to Ted Bulletin's and got shakes. I'd say it was a success. I'd upload the photos, but it wasn't a good hair day for me...

On Friday, a random girl in my ward invited me to dinner. So we met up with another friend and went to dinner. Then we walked around Georgetown. I found out that Zara has stores in the US. And not only in the US, but in Georgetown. I had no idea. Zara was my favorite store in Spain. Yes, I bought pink paisley skinny jeans. And they look fabulous.

Saturday was extremely busy. I went to a Women's Conference at my church in the morning. Then, I went to an Ultimate Frisbee game (quote of post-game synopsis "Defensive award this game goes to Melanie.  I ran out of fingers trying to count her defensive plays.  Nice job!"). (we don't need to talk about my abilities on offense...)

Then I went to a chocolate tasting at Cocova. So many kinds of chocolate and so little time! It was tasty. I ended the evening with a documentary entitled “Wonder Women!” which discussed the portrayal of women in the media and specifically going through superheroes and strong female characters.

Life has been good. I’m enjoying the free stuff in the city and working on my 1000 goals (as my mom says).

City Faux Pas

When I'm visiting a city, I try to look as much like I belong there as possible. That's why I leave my fanny pack at home. But sometimes, you just look like a tourist with your backpack, tennis shoes, and camera. I understand that. While on vacation, I often try to talk to local people to find cool restaurants or off the beaten path things to do.

Now that I live in the city. I most definitely want to let people think that I know what I'm doing. Even when I don't. I walk through the metro like I know which direction I'm supposed to go and which train I'm supposed to get on. Even if I'm checking the Metro app on my phone, it's not obvious to the outsider that I'm completely lost.

I know the metro system pretty well. I ride it nearly every day. I often meet up with friends on lines I don't normally travel. But I don't know the bus system at all.

A few weeks ago, a coworker and I went to visit a school for something related to our job and we were at a place where taking the metro back to the office was going to be a bit out of our way. (we took metro from our homes to the school). I google-mapped us the best route to get back to the office and it said to take a bus. And it told me how to get to the bus stop. We found the stop without a problem. And then we waited. After no buses went by us (like 10 minutes) I call the number on the stop and find out that the buses have been rerouted and don't pass by that stop anymore. Ugh!

So we end up taking the metro and it was pretty quick in the end. But it was my first attempt at the bus system and it was an utter failure.

Last week, the same coworker and I were to visit another school. We were going to use the agency cars (like zip car system), but it was going to be a pretty big waste of time to go pick them up. So we were set to take the metro to Chinatown and then hop a bus from there.

Seeing as the only buses we had really taken in DC up to this point were to Georgetown, this was definitely a different experience.

We got on the bus, and we definitely stood out. Of course I seemed a little green because I asked the bus driver if the stop we needed was indeed on that bus's route. She confirmed, and then I walked right past her. I completely forgot to pay! So I went back to pay.

Definitely a greenie move.

But that's not even the worst of it.

As we continued to venture into less familiar territory, I was checking the maps app on my phone to make sure that we got off at the correct stop. As we got near the stop, I informed my coworker and she requested a stop.

Then to our chagrin, my phone said, "Get off at the next stop" clear enough for several smirks and chuckles. Oh man! I didn't realize that my phone talked to me when I was navigating on a bus route. It was pretty embarrassing. But what can you do? Laugh it off, and chalk it up to experience.

The next time I ride a DC bus, I'll know to turn the sound off as I'm tracking our route!