Oh man. Sorry about that.

Alright. I am the ultimate failure in blog updating. But, it has been an absolutely insane couple of weeks, and pretty much every spare moment I have had has gone toward working on my term paper, which was due Friday. But I am back to normal now (mostly), so hopefully here in my last week of being in DC I will keep you updated as much as I possibly can.

I have two papers to write tonight, so I'm not going to try and update you all from the very beginning of where I left off. But I will give you an update as to this weekend!

The term paper was due Friday at 5 p.m., so I was up literally all night with about 5-6 other WJCers in our classroom. It was actually a lot of fun, and we were probably much less productive than we should have been, but we covered the white board in quotes and ridiculous websites. It was a lot of fun. Although, definitely tiring.

I went to sleep around 8 a.m., and my paper wasn't done, but I felt like I had done enough in order to finish later that day. Woke up at 9:58 a.m. and went to class at 10 a.m., where we had a guest speaker who talked about our calling. He was very encouraging.

Then, during lunch I slaved away on my paper some more. Then we had another short class period. Then I finished up my paper, turned it in and headed out to Baltimore for the Orioles game at Camden Yards!

Our director, Terry, lives in Baltimore and is an Orioles fan, so he had invited us to come to the game with him. About 10 of us ended up going in two separate shifts. I was in the second shift, and we took the MARC train (commuter train) straight to the ballpark from Union Station, about an hour long ride - maybe a little longer. By the time we got there, Terry had already gotten our tickets, but he had left them at Will Call for Greg, but Greg wasn't with us, so we just kind of hung out while we waited for Greg to get there. Then when he finally got there, he picked up the tickets and didn't realize he had ours, so he went into the stadium with our tickets.

So we missed the first couple of innings, which I wasn't overly happy about, but it didn't really matter because nobody had scored by the time we got to our seats. So it wasn't too bad. Karin and I got buffalo chicken sandwiches with (totally crappy) garlic fries. They're just not garlic fries if there isn't real garlic on them. I'm spoiled by Gilroy.

Then we watched the game. It was a lot of fun. They were playing the Texas Rangers, and there was quite a bit of hitting and the music was fun. It was student night, so there were tons of really excited fans sitting around us. It was great. The park was nice, too - it reminded me quite a bit of AT&T Park, just with a brick wall where the ocean usually is.

We were exhausted, so that actually probably made the whole thing a lot more fun, because we were loopy the whole time. Good stuff.

Then we had to leave early, because we had to catch the lightrail to the bus to the metro to get home, and we had to make sure we caught the last bus. I was pretty bummed. But that's life, I guess. Life without a car, that is.

Got home and crashed. Hard.

Saturday, Danielle, Karin and I slept until noon, then woke up and went to Eastern Market to do some shopping, just for fun, and because we hadn't been there yet. It was nice, but it has been ridiculously hot here, so we were sweating bullets.

We got some tropical mango sorbet (to die for!) and I got some earrings, a little wristlet purse thing, and some fruit =)

Then we went back to the apartments and watched this week's episode of The Office (because we missed it while we were working on our papers) and then sat on the roof for a little while, and then I watched this week's Grey's.

And then a bunch of us went to dinner at the Banana Cafe. It decided to start pouring rain while we were in there, though it stopped before we left, but there was a huge lightning storm going on the whole walk back. It was fantastic.

That was pretty much it. Watched another episode of The Office and then I talked to a bunch of people from home and went to bed.

This morning, Danielle, Karin, and I woke up and went to the zoo!!! We saw all kinds of awesome animals. Elephants, hippos, PANDAS!, capybara, orangutans, gorillas, all kinds of stuff. It was sweet. Really hot, again, but really fun.

Then we found a frozen yogurt place and got some. Then we came back, where we attempted to work on our papers, but I just ended up falling asleep. Still trying to straighten my life out a bit...

Coco's sister is here for the weekend visiting, so they rented a car yesterday so they could go out to Virginia and go hiking, so we took advantage of the car and went to Target in Falls Church, Va., and then found a Red Robin for dinner. Yum!

Now we're back and I have to work. But there is a partial update!

And here is some updating from a really long time ago. I'd been working on this progressively. I'll try to fill in the holes later.

Thursday, April 9

Ended up heading home after work, made some pasta, and went down to Bible study - only to find that everyone forgot AND the first episode of The Office extravaganza was on at 8 p.m. So Jason, Jeremy, Karin, Kelsie (Karin's sister who was staying with us for the night) and I headed down to the WJC classroom (because the main lounge TV is still broken and we couldn't get in to the WJC lounge) and watched a whole lot of TV. The Office, the new Parks and Recreation show (which I don't think I like) another Office, 30 Rock, and then Coco and Phil and I watched the new Southland show. It's intense. Ryan from the OC is in it, and I just don't know if I can ever take him seriously as another character.

Anyways, we were down there until 11 p.m. and then I called my parents and talked to Karin and Kelsie a bit. And that was it.

Friday, April 10

Woke up for devotionals at 7 a.m., went back to bed. Got up and showered, and then went to Old Siam (the Thai place we love) for lunch with Karin and her whole family. Very fun - great family. Then they went off to Georgetown and I went in search of an Easter dress =)

I went to H&M off of Metro Center and had great success. They had a ton of cute stuff, perfect for Easter, and I got an adorable lavender, knee-length, half-sleeved dress with a great floral pattern around the bottom. I love it. I just want to wear it every day now.

Then I went to Target because I needed a couple of things. Then I went home, and Coco and I went to Ebenezers for the National Community Church's Good Friday service. It was really nice, and I enjoyed the time to reflect on what Good Friday really means.

We got drinks at Ebenezers, and stopped at 7/11 to get some ice cream on the way home (we were feeling needy) and then ate some real food in the apartment before attacking my ice cream. Coco found some extremely creative Peep dioramas on the Washington Post web site, so we enjoyed looking at those while we chowed down.

Then I watched "Signs" in the ASP classroom with a bunch of ASP people, and then ended up talking with Kate and one of her APU friends and Julia, then John, Jason, Geoff, Cole and David came back and we messed around for a while. Then Karin and I talked really late.

Saturday, April 11

Slept in. Woke up and went with Karin and family to the International Spy Museum. Her family finished before we did, so they went on ahead, and after we were done, Karin and I went to Chipotle before meeting up with them at the Air and Space Museum.

We didn't spend very long in the Air and Space because we were all pretty museum-ed out, so the two of us and her family walked down to the Capitol and stood on the front pavilion area and people-watched. It rained earlier in the day, but by this point it was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm. It was wonderful, and very fun.

Then, her family headed back to their hotel, and Karin and I headed back to the apartments, where we grabbed our grocery bags and caught the bus to Safeway. We were so fast. We were super paranoid about missing the bus on the way back that we sped quickly through our shopping and were at the bus stop about 15 minutes before the bus came. But, you know, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

Went back to the apartments, unloaded the groceries, checked in on Natalee Anderson (who hurt her back) and bummed around for a while before taking a shower and going to bed.

Sunday, April 12

Woke up at 5:45 a.m. to meet John, Jason, Phil, Sarah and Andrea downstairs at 6:20 a.m. so we could catch the 6:37 a.m. bus to the National Cathedral for church on Easter Sunday morning!!!

Oh man, it was early. But I generally feel much perkier on early mornings if they are holidays, so it wasn't too bad.

The National Cathedral has two services on Easter Sunday - one at 8 a.m., and one at 11 a.m. You have to have tickets if you are going to the 11 a.m. one, but we wanted to go, so we decided to brave the 8 a.m. service.

The bus dropped us off around 7:15 a.m., and we headed inside to grab awesome seats. We were in the very first section of the church. Prime seating. And we were there so early we had time to walk around and explore before the service started. Beautiful, beautiful building. Very political, though. So much for the separation of church and state.

The service was very formal. It's an Episcopalian church, so it was very liturgical. Lots of call and response stuff. Lots of prayers and hymns I'd never heard. Different words to "Christ the Lord is Risen Today."

A few key memories:
- We were standing, singing a hymn, when this boy swinging the ball on a chain walked by. The ball was clearly filled with incense of some sort, and I inhaled it while taking a breath between lines of the hymn. Coughing and choking ensued.
- I dropped my Bible at one point during the service - completely on accident. Everyone around me looked at me like I personally had put Jesus on that cross.
- The kids sitting in front of me were clearly from a family that did not attend church regularly. The youngest one was continuously poking his brother and looking around like he intentionally wanted to cause trouble. When his dad pointed out to him that we were singing our final song, the kid literally started jumping up and down and pumping his fists in the air.
- Communion w/wafer that I dipped in the "communal cup." Gross. Germs much? And Jason accidentally ate his wafer before getting to the cup, and he didn't want to drink from the cup because that's gross, so he just left the line. Skipped the whole "blood" part. Haha.

It was definitely a cool experience, though. There's an enormous gift shop downstairs, and we spent some time looking around, although, as Jason said, it felt a bit like Jesus should come and turn over all the tables and scold them for selling for profit in the house of God. But they really like their gargoyles over there, and they have a book all about the gargoyles, in addition to gargoyle puppets and stuffed animals - just what you've always needed.

Also, did you know that there is a Darth Vader gargoyle on the outside of the cathedral? It was actually intentionally carved to look like him for some contest, and it is actually on the cathedral. Nice to know that cathedral supports the Force.

We had a small misadventure on the way back, with John getting on the bus without the rest of us. But we found our way back just fine. Karin got off early to go see her family one more time before they left, and a guy got on the bus who looked exactly like what the political cartoon version of President Obama looks like.

Andrea went off to Eastern Market when we got off the bus, so the remaining four trekked back to the apartments and arrived back around 11:30 a.m. completely exhausted. But I had homework to do and potatoes to mash, so I read for a while and then began peeling the potatoes for the large Easter lunch/dinner we were having.

Everyone who was around for Easter signed up to bring some sort of food item (or two) and we created the Easter dinner of all Easter dinners. Never in my life have I been so impressed with the level of cooking college students can create. John made two 8-pound hams. With pineapple glaze. It was delicious. Phil made salmon. Kate brought chicken. We had two kinds of potatoes, garlic bread, biscuits, salad, fruit salad, green beans, some other sort of vegetable thing, fettucine, and I'm sure other things that I'm completely forgetting.

And then there was the dessert table. One apartment made a cheesecake from scratch. There were multiple types of brownies, cookies, and cakes. Holy cow.

There were about 25 of us who gathered in the ASP classroom to participate in the inhaling of this great meal. And it truly was great. Very fun. I like Easters that are celebrated in big groups like that. Feels like a big family.

After we had shoved all the food in that we could, I headed back to my apartment to read some more. About three pages in, I completely fell asleep. It was about 4:30 p.m., and I had been awake for 11 hours already and I had just filled my stomach with food. It was inevitable.

The rest of the evening consisted of me working on homework and microwaving Peeps with Coco. We were a little loopy.

Monday, April 13

Woke up not feeling very well again, so I spent most of the day in sweats and without makeup. It was nice.

Class in the morning, lunch break where I finished up my homework, class in the afternoon. Took a nap after class because I was exhausted. Then we had family dinner, which took the form of a picnic in front of the Capitol on the National Mall. It was really a lot of fun. It was kind of drizzling, but it was still cool to sit and eat pita sandwiches, pasta salad, oranges and chocolate chip cookies in front of the Capitol building.

Then I threw a frisbee with Christine, Sarah, Mandi, Jason, David, Phil, and Julia (all came and went intermittently). I like frisbee. Jason's pretty much a pro, so he was teaching me and Christine how to throw it "backhand." Harder than it looks.

Headed back to the apartments where I talked with Mandi and Sarah for a while, then we had a group WJC meeting about some weekend plans and then I went to bed.

Tuesday, April 14

Went to work. Keith was out sick, and I had two assignments: one, write an updated story about the tax day tea parties that were happening in DC the next day; two, help Freeman with the crime page, because Scott wasn't there and Freeman was writing the next day's cover story.

So I did just that. I wrote up the crime blotter with press releases he sent me, I did "this day in crime history" and I wrote a short "what's making news." I basically did half the crime page for the day. It was fun. Had Corner Bakery for lunch. Got all my work done and got an assignment for the next morning, then headed back to the apartments.

Ate some dinner, then watched "Roger and Me" by Michael Moore, and reread the chapter about that movie in my book that highly criticizes him. (My term paper I'm writing is about Michael Moore and whether he is a journalist or a propagandist.) Then I went to bed.

Wednesday, April 15

It was pouring rain, but I had been assigned to go to a press conference at the Tidal Basin, so I went anyways. There, looking straight at the Jefferson Memorial, a group of triathlon people were announcing a huge international championship triathlon that is going to be held in DC this June. I still went down to the very small conference and was treated like royalty, since I was one of three members of the press. But I got to personally interview DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and U.S. Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker, who was a member of the 2008 triathlon team. It was pretty awesome.

On my way back from the press conference, I talked with a kid named Darren who was there covering it for a triathlon magazine as we walked back to the metro. He was nice. Then I stopped at Au Bon Pain and got a cinnamon raisin bagel with honey pecan cream cheese (my new favorite food) and a chai latte, since I was cold, wet and hadn’t eaten anything yet. Then I went into the office and worked on my story for the rest of the day until around 4 p.m., when I headed out a bit early so I could stop by the grocery store on the way home.

We had decided to make sloppy joes for progressive dinner, and I had been nominated to pick up the groceries, so I did. Then, it took me an hour and a half to get home because I took the bus, but it was raining, so apparently everyone drives stupider in the rain. Bleh.

Then I got back to the apartments only to find out that we had decided to postpone progressive dinner until the following week because so many ASPers were still working on their projects. So I went up to Jason and John’s apartment to let them know we were postponing, and got looped into a big conversation with Zack, Chris, Mark, Yvette and Jason about weekend plans.

Made dinner, then spent the rest of the night on the couch with Coco reading our books for our research papers. And watching the Susan Boyle video on YouTube, haha.

I'll finish it progressively.

The Latest Stories

My Personal Best fencing story:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Personal-Best/Fencing-offers-cerebral-challenge-42827647.html

And the prescription drugs story from last Thursday:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/DC-Council-eyes-requiring-proper-disposal-of-prescription-drugs-42827097.html

And the Catholics story:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/More-DC-area-residents-set-to-convert-to-Catholicism-42774037.html

That's it for now, I believe. You are now updated on my stories, and I will write an update soon, hopefully. I'm writing two stories today, so it probably won't be today, but it will be soon. Maybe tomorrow. Wednesdays tend to be slower.

Potholepalooza Finally Printed!

My story I wrote yesterday about the homeless population.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Washington-areas-homeless-population-on-the-rise_04_09-42689437.html

And the POTHOLEPALOOZA story! I just realized I hadn't posted this yet.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Potholepalooza-addresses-pesky-potholes-42505922.html

Now, there was a little bit of disappointment with this story, because after all the work to get me to go with the photographer, there weren't any photos used at all. Not online, not in the paper, nothing. The story printed on Monday, and so Tuesday when I went into the office, I received a huge apology from my editor, telling me that when he saw the way it had printed, he was "livid." He had wanted it to be a bigger deal, I guess, but the people who do the pages hadn't done it correctly.

So the story is still there and it's still good and I'm still proud of it, but there are no photos. But you can still read it and enjoy it!

Last night, since a lot of people were out of town or have family in town, we all just ordered pizza for progressive dinner. Domino's has the whole 5-5-5 deal where you can get 3 medium pizzas for $5 each, so my apartment got one and the girls next door got two, and we bought them together. It was just me, Coco and Kati, so we got a barbecue chicken pizza.

The boys ordered their own. They each got their own pizza. And each of them finished their own pizza. Holy cow.

But we had a good time. We just brought all the pizzas into our apartment and sat around eating and talking and hanging out. There was a brief game of something similar to "6 Degrees to Kevin Bacon" and then there was just talking. Andrea read us the crime blotter from the Barnesville Enterprise, her hometown paper. People slowly trickled out, and eventually it was me, Coco, Jason, Geoff, Kati and Sarah just goofing off, talking about Biola and Jason's family, haha.

Then they left to watch Heroes and Mandi and Yvette came in, and we all talked for a while. Then Karin came home, and I talked with her for a while. Then Mandi came back and the three of us talked for a while. Then Jeremy came in and we talked.

It was pretty much just a hang out night.

This morning, we did our morning devotionals later, because I was the only one going to work. So we met at 8:15 a.m., which felt so much nicer. We went over the passage in Luke with the Last Supper and discussed it. It was really good. Easter has not been very present in my mind this year.

Now I'm at work, writing a story about legislation that was introduced by the DC Council about prescription drugs in the water. Going to get lunch at Corner Bakery, and then possibly met Karin and her family for dinner tonight after I get off. Then we have Bible study and two new episodes of The Office! Sounds like a good night.

And Mom and Dad, I'm going to call tonight. Let me know if that doesn't work.

It's Twitterific!

As you may or may not have noticed, I have added a gadget to the left side of this blog page. It is entitled "Twitter Updates," and is just that. I have a Twitter account (for those of you who don't know, it's a web site where you can post 140-character notes/updates as much as you want), and I'm updating it whenever I feel like it, and from now on, those updates will show up on the side of the page here. I'm going to try and keep up with it as much as I can, so that will be something else for you to check out when I haven't updated the blog in a while.

I've had a Twitter account for a while, but then since I've been here, I've realized how many people have them, and I decided it would probably be a good idea to get on there and understand it.

In other news, today I got to work and was assigned to cover a meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in which a presentation was going to be made about the number of homeless people in the area. The thing was that today was early deadline day, and the meeting didn't start until noon, and I had to have my story filed by 1:45 p.m. And on top of that, the actual presentation of the information didn't start until 12:45 p.m. Which meant I had exactly one hour from the beginning of the presentation to get my story written and filed.

I got to the meeting about 10 minutes early, got all the papers off the table for the press, and found a seat. There was a document with all the numbers of homeless populations, so I grabbed that and started looking through it. I wrote the lede to my story and kind of outlined the story so I would be ready to go when the presentation was over.

Then, to add more stress, a PIO came over to me and said that the document I was poring over was actually incorrect, and they were trying to get the correct numbers prepared, but he wasn't sure whether it would happen or not.

That was highly stressful.

Fortunately, the new numbers came in during the presentation, and everything worked out fine. I took avid notes, desperately scribbling in my Moleskin notebook. It finally finished around 1:15 p.m. I had a half hour to write the story.

I sat down and wrote my butt off. Fortunately, 350 words isn't horribly difficult. Got the story done to the point where I was satisfied with it. It was 1:43 p.m. I tried to log onto the wireless in the building where the meeting was to no avail. It wasn't working. So I had a completed story but no internet.

I was right next to Union Station, and I knew there was a Corner Bakery in there. So I ran. I ran to Corner Bakery. Got there, and my computer wouldn't pick up the signal. I tried and tried and tried. Nothing. Went into B. Dalton, just because I was desperate. It was now nearing 2 p.m. B. Dalton was no help whatsoever. I went back to Corner Bakery, just to try one more time, and it worked!

I sent the story off just in time. Literally moments after I had sent it, the connection died. I think I need to get the wireless card checked out in my laptop, because it feels like everywhere I go I have issues connecting to the wireless. So either everywhere in DC has a weak signal, or my wireless card isn't doing very well.

Either way, I got the story filed and my editor was very happy with it. He called me to let me know he didn't have any questions, and since I was already at Union Station, I could just go home since the deadlines of the day were past. So I got a sandwich from the Great Steak and Potato Company and a Mcflurry from McDonalds and went back to the apartments, where I am currently sitting.

One thing I liked today, though, was that while I was sitting in Corner Bakery waiting to hear back from Keith, there was a lady with two young boys, and she asked one of the workers if there were any other food options in the station. The worker just kind of looked at her and was no help, and I noticed. I don't always butt into these kinds of situations, but I decided to help. I told the woman that there was a whole food court downstairs and gave her directions. I figured that after how many people have helped me out since I've been here, I could pay it forward, if you will. It felt good to be able to help someone.

Tonight is progressive dinner, sort of. A lot of people are going to be gone, since tomorrow marks the beginning of our Easter break, so we decided to just order pizza and hang out rather than make everyone do a bunch of work for not many people.

I'm still going to work tomorrow, even though we are supposed to get the day off. Jason called me "dedicated" this morning, but that's really not it. It's more guilt. Keith came over to me Tuesday morning and told me that like, a ton of people had taken off the next couple of days and he was really going to need my help this week. So I just couldn't make myself tell him that I was supposed to get Thursday off. So I'm working. But it's no biggie, it's not like I have anywhere to be or anyone visiting, so I might as well work. And after tomorrow, I only have three more internship days.

Yesterday I wrote a story about how Catholic churches in the area are seeing a higher number of people that are going to be confirmed into the church this weekend. It was actually really interesting talking to the people. I called the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Arlington and talked to them a bit. It's a good story, I think. I like writing it.

After work, I met Mandi and went to a book release party/lecture at the Marian Koshland Science Museum with her (she was covering it for UPI). It was about climate changing and global warming, and the book showed climate change through photos. It was actually pretty interesting.

Then we met Coco at Fuddruckers in Chinatown area and had dinner. It was quite fun. I like those girls. Then we took the bus home because we had not expected it to be so cold and we hadn't worn coats that day. Bad day to make that choice.

Got home around 9:30 p.m. (long day), and hung out for a while. Talked to Nick on Skype before completely crashing in my bed.

And just as an update, I'm still doing quite well in getting up early for our 7 a.m. devotionals. Everyday this week I've been up and at 'em at 7 a.m. It's been a really good experience, and I'm glad we're doing it. Definitely gives me a better outlook on my day. I think we're going to keep this up until the end of the semester? I would be fine with that. It just makes me absolutely exhausted, so I completely die in my bed every night.

And as a last note - the Giants definitely WON their opening day game yesterday 10-6. LOVE it. Good way to start off the season. Can't wait to see more of this.

Cherry Blossoms!!!!!!!

Friday

Woke up at 7 a.m. to do devotionals with the Bible study group. Afterward, went to Jacob's to get a copy of the Washington Post for class that morning, and unintentionally met up with Natalee and Shanley. Got a chai latte and a muffin, and read the paper with them for a while. Karin picked up a bunch of Examiners while she was out running, so we were set for class.

Then, we had class, where we basically read through the papers together and talked about the differences between traditional dailies and commuter dailies.

Lunch. Talked to Lisa a bit. Read my blog for class. Second half of class, where we watched a bunch of videos about the evolution of the news industry. Went to Ebenezer's, where we talked about chick flicks.

Then Karin and I headed out to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms around the Jefferson and FDR Memorials. It was absolutely beautiful, as I'm sure you can see by the photos above. For more amazing pictures of cherry blossoms and stuff, visit my Facebook. I have a whole album of them.

We were out there for a while, and watched the sun set. Gorgeous. Then, we headed toward Chad's for a movie night, but we were hungry, and there wasn't any real convenient place to get food between where we were and his house. So we stopped at L'Enfant Plaza on the way there, figuring that there must be something to eat there, right? Yeah, not really. We ended up finding a McDonalds, which we made work.

Got to Chad's, where we were watching "Jurassic Park." I never saw it as a child or ever, so this was a new and exciting experience. Of course, I've heard about it my whole life, and I was expecting it to be much more violent and graphic than it actually was. I even liked it.

Then, they all decided we should watch the next one, so Chad and Cole went to rent it, and while they were gone we played Dr. Mario on the Wii. Then we watched Jurassic Park 2, which was much cornier than the first one. Not as good. But we had a very entertaining commentary going on throughout the whole thing.

Headed home, and Karin and I talked for a while before heading to bed.

Saturday

Slept in (7 a.m. devos are only Monday-Friday) until about 1 p.m. Got up, ate, got ready, and headed out with Karin to the National Mall. We just wanted to be outside, so we went to the sculpture gardens, where we "interpreted" the sculptures. Then we got some lemonade from a refreshment stand on the mall and laid in the grass and talked for a while, just enjoying the sunshine and beautiful day.

Headed home, made a chicken dinner together, and then ended up watching "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" in the WJC lounge with Alyssa, Sarah Breen, Christine, and Karin. We were going to go to Chad's house party but we decided to opt out of this one. After the movie, we watched some Friends and then went to bed.

Sunday

Went to church at Union Station. Came back, ate, went through my cherry blossom photos and Facebooked them. Worked on homework and reading pretty much all day. That's pretty much it.

Hasn't been an ovrly exciting weekend, but it's been beautiful and I have loved being able to be outside and enjoy the weather. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so that's over for a bit. And there are like millions of tourists here right now. It's ridiculous.

And I had ice cream for dinner.

Monday

Woke up for our Bible study devotions. We did them on the roof, which I love, because it just makes me feel closer to God. Wonderful to be outside.

Went back to my apartment and laid down in my bed and dozed for about 45 minutes before showering and heading off to class. Had class. Had lunch. Turned in my blog and went to the post office, to mail a bunch of stuff, including some clips for the journalism spring banquet. Oh, and Mom, I mailed you my check from Grandma. So keep an eye out for it, please =)

As I was walking back from Union, it started raining on me. Good thing I had brought my umbrella AND had a jacket on with a hood. I'm such a forward thinker. When I got back to the apartments, I watched "Bowling for Columbine" (for my term paper), and then we had family dinner. We had dijon chicken, rice, and salad. Very good. Cheesecake for dessert.

Finished "Bowling for Columbine" and then Karin and I worked on a special project for Erin and Juliette. It took much longer than we had planned, but I know they will appreciate it. If you're interested, you can go to my Facebook and look at my videos.

Realized the class schedule for next fall was online, so I started looking at classes, and pretty much have it figured out. 12 units really isn't that many.

Went to bed.

Tuesday, thus far

Woke up for our Bible study devotions. It was too cold to go on the roof, so we read through some Psalms together in the parlor. Went back to bed when we were done - we meet from 7 to 7:30 a.m., and I don't leave for work until 9:30 a.m.

Came to work. There is a new computer at my desk today. A Mac. Without a keyboard or a mouse. This is interesting. I always bring my laptop, so it's not a big deal - it's just funny. Although, the old computer had the big computer box under the desk and I used it as a footrest. Worked nicely. So now, I'm out of a footrest.

That's it so far.

I Apologize Wholeheartedly

Ok ok ok. It’s been far too long. It has been at least two weeks since my last real, hardcore update. SO. I am going to try very hard to catch you all up on everything. It will be long, and it may be missing portions because it was so long ago. But I will still try.

Today has been an interesting day. I woke up at 7 a.m. (Yikes!) and went to US-VISIT, part of the Department of Homeland Security that is in charge of fingerprinting for non-US citizens. I did an interview with them. It was really interesting.

Went to Au Bon Pain afterwards to grab some breakfast because I was very hungry. Ate and went to work, where I have spent most of my day writing this blog entry.

Also, I have decided to pick up my Twittering. I’ve had one for a while, but never used it. However, it’s really picking up, so I figure I might as well be good at it. So I worked on that for a while, too.

I think they’ve been avoiding giving me new stories because 1. I’m trying to finish up, like, three, and 2. I have no voice, so no one can hear me on the phone.

I’m feeling better physically. I’m still sick (and it’s been kind of a long time :/) but I’m not feeling horrendous. I just sound like I am horribly terribly sick. Like dying sick. And everyone feels bad for me.

But I went to Corner Bakery for lunch and got some baked potato soup, and then we had another fire drill. Talked with Ryan again. I swear, everyone in my newsroom is crazy smart. Teddy went to Harvard. Dave went to Yale. Bill speaks pretty much every language out there, I think. Crazy.

Went home, and Jenna called! It was so nice to hear from her. Seriously. Then Coco made me an omelet. And we had Bible study, which is proving to be exactly what I needed. We’re going to wake up every day for the next week at 7 a.m. and meet on the roof to just spend time with God. It’s way early and it’s going to be very hard for me, but I think it is going to be amazing.

And I talked with Phil about everything that’s happening. He went through a similar situation at the beginning of the semester. It’s really nice to have someone to encourage you that genuinely knows what you’re going through.

Then I called my parents and talked for a while.

Now to update.

Thursday, March 19

I had lunch with Natalee and Alyssa at Subway, which was really fun. I enjoy eating lunch with people – it’s better than just grabbing food and heading back to my desk.

Then I kept working on getting my 3-minute interview, and watched basketball, because they turned on the first round of March Madness games. I didn’t have much to do, so it was a nice distraction. I also found an excellent online game for my computer’s dashboard. Very mindless and time consuming. Sweet.

Went home and got invited to go to Ben’s Chili Bowl for dinner with a bunch of people. I’d been wanting to go, because it’s kind of famous, so I went. We took the bus out to U St. and had dinner. There were like 13-14 of us, so we really crowded up the place, but it was fun. I had a chili burger and then Christine and I split fries. It reminded me of Tommy’s, but I liked it better (sorry, Dad). It wasn’t so greasy.

Then it was time to go back to the apartments, and most of the group wanted to take the metro back, but a couple of us wanted to take the bus, since it would drop us off right in front of the apartments. So John, Eli, Mandi and I waited for the bus and took it back, arriving at like, 9:03 a.m., and literally running into the building because it was time for The Office.

The Office is going insane, by the way. Completely crazy! I can’t believe it’s all happening. I have no clue what is in the future.

Also watched 30 Rock, then went upstairs to see if my 3-minute interview had emailed me his stuff yet. He had, so I put that together really quick and sent it off and then just hung out and went to bed.

Friday, March 20

Class in the morning, class in the afternoon. I honestly don’t really remember what we did in class. I would if I had the syllabus right here, but I’m at work and I don’t bring those with me. Went to Ebenezer’s. Headed back to the apartments and met up with a group of ASPers who were going to Georgetown to get cupcakes. We went out there with Danielle, Micaela, Jenny, Allison, Alyssa, Karin, Christine, and David. I think that was it.

We went to the place (Georgetown Cupcakes) and there was a huge line out the door. We stood in it for about 25 minutes, probably, and finally got our cupcakes. I got some chocolate fudge explosion something. I don’t remember exactly what it was called. But we took them down to the water and ate them while watching the sunset.

Then we went to H&M where I bought more tights because mine had died. And then we met Chad, Cole, and Brian and went to Old Glory for them to have dinner, and for us to have appetizers because we had already eaten. We actually lost four of the other girls at this point because they wanted Chipotle.

When we were done eating and watching basketball, we decided to head over to the actual Georgetown University campus an walk around a bit. We went through several buildings, and it is just absolutely beautiful. It’s so majestic and feels like you’ve walked into Europe or something. We went into an administrative building, some classrooms, a chapel, a cemetery, attempted to go in a dorm, and eventually found a common area with food, banks, bookstore, etc. There was a room with a bunch of couches and old arcade games (which turned out to be completely free!), so we ended up spending a solid hour and a half playing free arcade games in this lounge.

Finally around midnight we decided we were ready to move on, so we started walking back to the metro (at this point, it was Chad, Cole, Brian, Alyssa, Christine, Karin and me). We had to walk back down the main street of Georgetown shopping area, which was an adventure around that time of night. We randomly ran into Bryce (ASP), who was eating in a Subway, and he ended up coming back with us.

We took the metro to Eastern Market, got off, walked around Eastern Market, and a couple of people expressed interest in going to IHOP. By this point it was about 1:30 a.m., and I was ready to call it a night, and IHOP is really far away. By the time they would be done eating, the metro would be closed and they would have to call a cab, and I just didn’t want to deal with it. Neither did Alyssa, so the two of decided to head home, while the rest of them went off to IHOP.

In retrospect, I’m extremely glad I didn’t go. The group ended up going to IHOP, then walked from Virginia to the Lincoln Memorial and watched the sunrise on the steps. Now, that is something I do want to do, but all the adventures in between just didn’t sound appealing. They didn’t get home until 9 a.m. the next morning. I would have been so grumpy.

Anyways, back to me. I went home that night, got there around 2 a.m., which is when I found out that editor-in-chief applications were due Monday. Then I went to bed.

Saturday, March 21

Woke up around noon, had some breakfast, talked to Gail, who handed me the reins on the whole house thing, and then went to the Verizon store and Target with Danielle. I was feeling overwhelmed, and Target is my happy place, so the whole trip made me feel better.

Came back and cleaned the upstairs bathroom intensely. It was disgusting. Then I helped Danielle clean the whole upstairs area, because it hasn’t been cleaned since we moved in because no one like dragging the vacuum cleaner up there. But we deep-cleaned and it was beautiful.

Then I made dinner and we watched some Friends, and then Danielle, Karin, Christine, and I went dancing at the Black Cat, just for fun.

Sunday, March 22

Went to church in Union Station the next morning with the same group that went dancing, and then had lunch at the same Asian restaurant that Greg and Mimi took us to for lunch in Union Station.

Came back, did some housing research, took a nap, called the landlord, called Erin and Juliette, and then started working on my homework. We had a news critique due for the blog and then I had to have my application questions done for the editor-in-chief thing, and my interview was supposed to be at noon on Monday.

I was up until 5 a.m. finishing my application and blog.

Monday, March 23

Woke up, had morning class. Got a text saying that my interview was postponed, and so I used the lunch break to eat, put the final touches on my blog, and work out some more 3-minute interview stuff (because I had one due Thursday).

Had afternoon class. Finally used the chai mix I bought from Target (really good). Headed out to my interview with the fencer in Maryland.

I had emailed the guy, set up the interview, and asked for recommendations as to public transportation. He had told me to go to a certain metro stop, and then to call the club and someone would come pick me up. That felt unnecessary to me, so I just found a bus that would take me to where I needed to go.

So I got on the metro, got on the right bus, and got off at the right bus stop. Everything was going swimmingly. Until I got off the bus and realized I had no idea where to walk. I started walking down the street, figuring eventually I would get some sort of clue as to where I was. I was in a totally residential area, and I came upon a little old lady doing some gardening work in her front yard.

I asked her if she knew where the road was that I was looking for. She looked at me and said, “You know, dear, I’ve lived here for 15 years, and I’ve never heard of that street.”

Seemed like a bad sign.

She was really sweet and offered to drive me around in her car until we found it. I declined the offer, saying I didn’t want to bother her – I would find it eventually. But she insisted on driving me, saying it was far too cold to be walking around like I was.

So, I climbed into the passenger seat of her car, and we went out in search of the mysterious road. I called the guy I was supposed to be interviewing, and he eventually led us verbally to the correct spot. The lady was so cute, telling me that she was in all new territory and she was very excited about it.

We pulled up to the fencing club, and she stopped the car and turned to me.

Lady: “Now, they’re not going to make you take the bus back to the metro now, are they?”
Me: “Haha, no. I have a feeling after all of this hullabaloo they will give me a ride back to the metro.”
Lady: “Ok, they better. It is far too cold and far too dangerous for you to be walking around like that outside. You’re a nice girl and you need to be safe!”
Me: “Thank you very much. I’ll be safe.”
Lady: “Ok, my name is Natalie and if you ever need anything, you let me know.”

Sweetest old lady. I would have been so lost without her.

So I finally went into the club, did my interview, and it went very well. We talked for about a half hour and then he did indeed give me a ride back to the metro. On the metro ride home, I was so tired that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and went one metro stop too far from Union Station. So I had to get off at Judiciary Square, go to the other side, wait for the next train and go back to Union Station. Not a huge deal, I just felt kind of dumb.

Went back to the apartments and saw Mandi, Natalee, Yvette, Zack, Mark, and Chris all behind the building kicking a soccer ball around. I went out and joined them for a little while, then headed back inside because I was hungry and it was cold outside. I warmed up some leftover French bread pizza and basically bummed around for the next two hours or so until I finally got off the couch to go to bed.

Tuesday, March 24

Went to work. Got assigned the potholes story. Also got assigned a fingerprinting thing from Scott, was working on my profile of the fencer and then was given the kindergartners story – which I posted a link to earlier. I enjoyed writing that story, and I think it actually turned out pretty good. My editor liked it. And I even got a call the next day from a lady at a pre-K place in Maryland thanking me for my article and wondering if she could get my email to send me regular updates from them. It felt good. You rarely get that in journalism.

Anyways, it was a big writing day. Went home, made dinner, had an informal interview with Michelle for editor-in-chief over Skype. Talked to my parents. Took a shower. Bed.

Wednesday, March 25

Went to work. Wasn’t sure what to expect because I didn’t know if I was going to be potholing or not. But I ended up rescheduling for Thursday so I could go with the photographer. So I just worked on my profile all day and did research for the books I needed to order for my term paper. I’m writing about whether Michael Moore is a journalist or a propagandist, and I’m actually really excited about it. I think it’s going to be really interesting. I’m going to watch a bunch of his documentaries and read some books about him. It will be good. Yay!

Went home, stopped by 7/11 on the way to pick up something for an appetizer for progressive dinner. I ended up getting Pillsbury biscuits and butter (because we were out), so we baked the biscuits and put out our own jellies/jams and stuff. Real easy, real good.

Progressive dinner was especially fun. Not entirely sure why, but it was. We started in our apartment with the biscuits, then went next door to the girls’ apartment for taco salad and then went back to our apartment because the boys don’t like using their apartment. So, we had cheesecake cupcakes topped with strawberry and cherry pie filling that John made. They were quite delicious.

Then, for entertainment, John told us a story. We all wrote down phrases on scraps of paper and he used them periodically throughout the story. It was a very strange story about a 3-legged pregnant giraffe who went to the Grand Canyon. But it was quite funny.

After the story, a lot of people left, but Cole, Geoff, Christine and Jason all stuck around and we talked for quite a long time. People were in and out all night. It was really fun.

Thursday, March 26

Woke up awaiting the call from the photographer, Andrew, to let me know when he would be arriving to pick me up and take me to the pothole place. However, it was raining quite hard outside, and I got a call from the PIO I had arranged the whole thing with, telling me we would need to postpone.

So I called Andrew and told him we had to postpone, then called Keith to let him know. I had woken up feeling kind of funny, so I asked if I could just work from home for the rest of the day, considering it was already later into the day, and I had a couple stories to work on. He was absolutely fine with that, so I went back to sleep for a couple hours, woke up around noon, had some cereal and toast, then spent the next six hours finishing my profile of the fencer.

When Karin came home, we made another Macaroni Grill chicken meal, this time some sort of parmesan/sun-dried tomato thing. It was delicious as usual. Then we had a Bible study that just started a couple weeks ago. It’s a totally informal thing where we just decide as a group what we want to talk about, but it’s nice to have that.

Then it was time for The Office (which was ridiculous again!) and 30 Rock. Then we went back upstairs and I looked over my profile one more time and sent it in. Then I talked with Mandi and Shanley for a while. Then I went to bed.

Friday, March 27

Class in the morning. Took a shower and had lunch, because we got out of class super early. Then we had afternoon class.

About 2:30 p.m., in the middle of afternoon class, my body started freaking out. My head started feeling like someone had a clamp on it, and my entire body started aching. It started out small, but by the end of class I felt absolutely horrible.

I went back to the apartment and laid down on the couch for a half hour before we went to Ebenezer’s, hoping that the pain would subside and it would just sort of be a fluke thing. I went to Ebenezer’s anyway, and participated in the conversation and all, even though I wasn’t feeling that great.

After Ebenezer’s Karin and I headed out to the Pentagon City mall where we were supposed to eventually meet up with Shanley and Mandi and a bunch of people. We started doing some shopping and I started feeling worse. I had though that I would make it through dinner and be fine, but I most definitely was not going to make it. My head and body still hurt, and now I was nauseas. I managed to finish shopping in Forever 21 (where I got a couple new really cute tops), but after that I had to leave. Karin was very understanding about the whole thing, so I bailed out of there as fast as I could (although I had to wait in the check-out line for at least 20 minutes).

I hopped on the metro for a miserable 35-45 minute ride home. Then I walked back to the apartments, and it started raining on me. Coco let me in, because I didn’t have a key, and I went upstairs changed clothes and called my parents.

I basically laid on the couch feeling absolutely miserable for about four hours Friday night. I attempted to watch Grey’s Anatomy, but I didn’t even feel good enough for that. I just kind of dozed in and out of sleep, with my stomach just hating me. I had chills. It was gross.

Finally around midnight, I was able to get some bread and Sprite in, and I could sit up and finish my episode of Grey’s. My stomach was still making noise, but it didn’t feel as terrible as it had previously. I went up to bed shortly thereafter and passed out.

Saturday, March 28

I slept until 1 p.m. and woke up with a head cold. I knew I wasn’t going to going anywhere soon, so I headed downstairs and set up camp in a comfy-ish chair in the living room where I proceeded to watch, like five episodes of Grey’s (I had to catch up! My roommates were harassing me!).

Eventually Karin convinced me to go out to dinner with her, so we went to Capitol City Brewery (which is a lot like BJ’s). I got a chicken sandwich, which was absolutely delicious, but mild enough that it wouldn’t upset my stomach. Then we met up with Coco and went to a cupcake place in Dupont called Hello Cupcake. They were about to close, so they were out of a lot of their usual options, but I got cupcake that had lemon cake and raspberry frosting. It was delicious, but a little too sweet, especially after having been so sick to my stomach.

Then we went back and watched “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” on the projector in the ASP classroom, because Cole broke the TV in the lounge. Excellent movie. That was Saturday.

Sunday, March 29

I woke up and didn’t feel good enough to go to church, so I decided to get some extra rest. I woke up around noon, and spent about an hour reading through Ephesians for Bible study. Refreshing to say the least.

Went downstairs, ate some food, and took a shower, because I decided it was time to rejoin the real world. Finished catching up on Grey’s and then ordered my books/movies for my term paper from Amazon and started work on my blog/news critique for Monday.

John had planned a “Casablanca” night, using my copy of “Casablanca,” so I figured I would go watch it with everyone. I love that movie. It’s just so fantastic.

After that, I worked on my blog some more and then Karin and I started talking about our whole housing situation for next year, and how terribly everything was going and so we ended up writing up an email to the other girls, letting them know how frustrated we were and that we needed a yes or no answer for sure on this thing. My BUBBS quit on me twice, and so I lost the email both times, and so it took a really long time. Then I wrote my term paper proposal and we finally went to bed. Late.

Monday, March 30

Morning class – actually really interesting, because we were studying Stephen Colbert. Finished up my blog and ate lunch. Afternoon class consisted of watching some clips from the Colbert Report and then talking about term papers.

I still wasn’t feeling good, but I was feeling better. But my voice was beginning to get a little warbly.

After class, Zack and I headed out in search of cherry blossoms. We found a whole lot of them, and it was absolutely beautiful. It was a gorgeous day – sunny and warm and very windy. We walked all the way down to the Washington Monument, and I took a billion pictures.

Then we headed back for family dinner, where we had take-out Chinese food. I sat with the girls from my apartment, Alyssa and Greg and Mimi. It was a lot of fun. And the food was ok.

I found out that I had not been chosen to be editor-in-chief that day, and I was definitely disappointed. Karin, Danielle, Coco, and I went to 7/11 and bought ice cream and then went back to the apartment to watch Friends for a little while. Then it was worship night, so Karin and I went down to the parlor for it. My voice was really broken up by this point, so I just sang really low and quietly.

Then I started calling people. I knew it had to be done, so I started with Erin. We ended up talking for a while, and then I tried to call Juliette, but she was in class. And I was going to call Lisa but she was in class. So was Jeff. So I called Andrew Ford but he didn’t answer. Then I texted Kelsey and Katie Mac, and they called me. I talked to them for a while, then Andrew called back. Then Kyle called, but by this point my voice was so dead and I really needed to go to bed, so we postponed our conversation.

Showered. Went to bed.

Tuesday, March 31

THE DAY OF THE POTHOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally.

It was so fun. My voice was completely gone. It was really bad. But I didn’t let it stop me. Andrew, the photographer, picked me up and we headed over to Anacostia to meet up with the pothole crew.

I didn’t get to actually help fix the potholes, but I had the process explained to me in extreme detail. I also got to meet lots of important pothole people and the crew was absolutely hilarious. I just had a total blast. Plus, it was another beautiful day and I was just so happy to be outside.

I got tons of good little tidbits for my story, and I left feeling really good about the whole thing. Nobody even made fun of me because of my lack of voice. They were all really nice about it.

I called Keith when we were done, and he told me it was fine if I worked from home after he asked me if I felt as bad as I sounded. Haha. I really did sound like death.

Anyways, I went home, scrounged up some tea bags on the advice of my mom, made lunch, and set to work on the pothole story. I wasn’t sure how corny I could be, so I ended up writing two versions – one newsy and one way corny. I ended up sending the corny one in.

Then our whole apartment and the girls’ apartment next door had dinner planned at Abigail’s apartment, so we headed over there. It was nice to just sit and talk and reflect on the semester thus far.

Then we all went back to our apartment, and pretty much just watched Friends for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, April 1

Actually went to work for the first time in a week. Got there around 10 a.m., and had some pothole story edits to make. I made those and then waited for the final word. They loved what I had done with it, and even kept my very very corny lede that I liked very much.

I still sounded like death. Considering I hadn’t been at work for a week, everyone was sure I was dying. Bill handed me a bottle of Vitamin C tablets and forced me to take one. Cathy advised drinking hot tea with honey and gargling with salt water. Keith told me about the time he’d lost his voice.

So they sent me home early, haha. It was early deadline day, I was done with my story, and it was 1 p.m. and they had nothing left for me to do. So Keith told me to head home and get some more rest.

I did so gladly. Headed home, made some pasta and watched “Ocean’s 11.” It was a no-talking day. Especially since I had put off talking to Kyle again due to my voice.

We had progressive dinner – the girls made Caesar salad for appetizer, the boys (really, Jason) made a pasta salad and garlic bread for entrée, and we made brownies for dessert. Yum.

I was the butt of never-ending jokes the whole night because of my voice. I would try to talk and everyone would just start laughing at me. I sound like a completely different person.

Also, the large cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton that John purchased has gone missing. Someone stole her. So John created a missing person sign for her and is on the rampage to get her back. He was searching our apartment last night. He thinks Ren took her.

After dinner, I finally called Kyle and we ended up talking for two hours. I miss that guy. He’s a good friend. And yes, I kept him from his Chimes duties for all that time. But I have no loyalty to the Chimes anymore, so eh, whatever.

Then I showered and went to bed.

DONE. BAM. LONGEST POST EVER.

Potholepalooza Postponed

Well, it looks like the pothole ride-along will be happening tomorrow instead of today. Oh well. At least it's still going to happen. Storytime is just a bit delayed.

The problem is that I'm not 21 yet. They want me to follow the crew to the different places they go, so they think I'm going to need my own car in order to do this. Obviously, I do not have a car, and they do have a company car, but you have to be 21 to drive it, according to company policy.

Despite the fact that everyone THINKS I'm over 21, that doesn't actually MAKE me 21. So yeah. I can't go alone. But I'm going tomorrow!

Here's the story I wrote yesterday about Maryland kindergarteners being more prepared to learn:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Report-More-Maryland-children-prepared-for-kindergarten-41791572.html

And this actually worked out for the best, because now I have real time to get my Student Media Board interview done and I don't have to worry about running off to catch a pothole truck.

The interview is in 23 minutes. I did an interview with Michelle last night, and that went well. I always enjoy talking with her. We'll see what happens. Whatever happens, happens. I'm ok with that.

So today, I'll just work on transcribing my interview with the fencing guy. And if you're lucky, you'll get a huge update on what's been happening to me since last Thursday. I've got some good stories.

Potholepalooza

I'll update today at some point - but for now, here's a link to my 3-minute interview from last week.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Three-minute-interview---Martin-do-Nascimento-41717697.html

Also, I am covering Potholepalooza this week. I get to do a ride-along with a pothole repair crew. How incredibly strange and yet oddly awesome is that? A RIDE-ALONG!

Haha.

A Prayer Request

I know it's been a while since I posted, and even as I'm here, I'm not here to give you an update. At least not an extensive one.

I'm here to ask for prayer from you all out there that read this. It's been an interesting weekend - not a bad one, mind you. Just a whole lot of stuff has been put on my plate and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Late Friday night/early Saturday morning, I found out that the interviews to be Editor-in-Chief of The Chimes at Biola were on Monday (yes, tomorrow), and that they wanted my application questions in by Sunday night (tonight). So, I have been working on that like a crazy person and worrying about my interview and all that jazz.

In addition, yesterday I was handed the reins in the whole housing bit for next year. It's now our turn to talk with the landlord of the house and haggle out a price for the house. This stresses me out. I've never done anything like this before, and the girls living there currently have been extremely helpful and so sweet and I'm so grateful for them, but it's just a big thing and feels like a whole lot of responsibility. I talked with the man for a while today, and the talks will be continuing.

On top of that, my phone is being ridiculous and I can't hear anything when people call me or I call them. I went to the Verizon store yesterday to see if they could fix it for me, and they basically told me I needed a new phone, which will cost me money since I am no longer under contract. I don't have money laying around for that, and I'm scheduled for an upgrade in June, so I did not get a new phone. The one I have is functional, and my Bluetooth works, so I'm making it work for the time being. But it's frustrating.

Then add on the fact that I have homework to do, a term paper topic to choose and start to research, and a huge interview to do with the guy I'm profiling for my internship, I'm kind of freaking out.

Tomorrow has a whole lot of stuff in it that I wasn't expecting, and I know it's all going to happen just fine, but I am just stressed out about it. I have class from 10-12, then my editor-in-chief interview is 12-12:30, then I have time to eat and then class from 2-3:30 or 4. Then I need to leave no later than 4:15 p.m. to go to my interview with this fencing guy in Maryland that starts at 5:30 p.m., which means I am missing family dinner. By the time I get back, it will be probably 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m., and I will be tired and stressed out and I will have to transcribe my interview and get ready for the next day.

Blah.

So all I'm saying is, please keep me in your prayers. I have a lot going on and I'm tired and I'm kind of stressed.

Thanks.

The Madness is All in the Head

March Madness has taken over my office. Almost the only thing anyone talks about, aside from the stories we work on, is basketball.

I have never participated in March Madness. I have never really had a desire to participate in March Madness. But here I go, and I'm actually kind of excited about it.

I've chosen Louisville and Syracuse for the final two teams, with Louisville winning the whole thing. Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot of strategy involved. It was a whole lot of guessing. I'll just have to wait and see.

Here is the link to my census story:

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/Data-Loudoun-growth-finally-slowing-41443802.html

I was complimented on it this morning by one of the other reporters, Dave. Yay =)

Left the office yesterday around 5 p.m., took the Metro home, called Grandma Vera and talked to her a bit while I walked home. Then Danielle and I set to work in the kitchen, making french bread pizza.

It turned out awesome. we had way too much cheese, and I probably could have put a little more sauce on, but overall, it was really good. The bread was nice and crispy, everything melted together well. Yum. We made four loaves of french bread, so eight pizzas, essentially. A lot of it got eaten, but we had a decent amount left over. Probably not quite a whole loaf. It will be good for leftovers.

The boys made meatballs in barbecue sauce for the appetizer, and the girls next door made a chocolate banana peanut butter cake for dessert. Pretty much to die for. It was highly successful progressive dinner.

We also continued our now tradition of asking a question and having everyone answer it. We found out which law people would break if they could get away with it, and what color they would like their skin to be if it could be any color (blue, green, etc.). Then, before we ate dessert, we played telephone pictionary (where you have the packet of papers, you write a phrase on the first one, then the next person draws what you wrote, and the next person writes what the previous person drew, etc.). It was so great. I just adore that game. They always turn out so funny.

Karin and I had a very important Skype date with Erin and Juliette at 8:30 p.m., so we left right as the game was over, and we didn't get dessert - but they brought us some while we were talking. It was delicious. We ate it while we Skyped. And Erin and Juliette were jealous.

Then I started cleaning up the dishes from dinner. Then I got distracted and went next door and talked with Mandi for a while. Then I went back to my apartment and finished doing the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen (we had made quite a mess). Then I filled out my brackets, since they had to be done by noon today and I didn't know what this morning would hold, and then I went to bed.

Today I woke up on time and got to work on time and all good things like that. I don't have a story I'm working on today, but I have to have a 3-minute interview done by tomorrow, so I'm working on that. And I'm meeting up with Natalee for lunch at Subway, so that will be a nice break.

Also, I flat out CANNOT get Billy Joel out of my head. It's been like, 3 days. This is getting ridiculous.

Oh, and the people at work finally realized how old I am. The reporter who waves at me funny, Bill, was saying something about getting a pint with someone, and then he looked at me, and said something like, "I'll never make you get a pint with me, though, Rachelle."

I just kind of laughed and shook my head.

"You don't drink at all, though, right?" he said.

"Well, I'm not even 21 yet," I said.

He was in disbelief. "What?!? No. You're kidding me. How old are you then?"

I told him I was 20. "You wear it well," he said in response. That's encouraging. At least people don't think I'm super young. That's part of the goal. Not that I want to be older, it's just that people don't take me as seriously when they think I'm younger. If I want to get my job done, I need to look a bit older. So that means it's working.

Haha.

"That Hasn't Happened For the Longest Time"

Yesterday I wrote a story about the Maryland Senate passing a ban on texting while driving. That story can be viewed at the following link.

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/Maryland-Senate-votes-to-ban-text-messaging-while-driving-41405357.html

I was happy to get this story assignment because it was pretty interesting. I liked doing the research and all, but I had major problems trying to get a hold of people to do interviews with. I was trying to talk to areas that already have a ban on texting while driving, so I contacted the police departments in both DC and LA (my editor wanted me to compare it to CA's law). But neither of them were very helpful at all. Too many hoops to jump through.

And then I was trying to contact some of the senators who sponsored this bill, but they were next to impossible to contact, too. They were all in committee meetings all day, and I finally had one call me back around 6 p.m. Fortunately, I was able to add his quotes to the story even though I had already sent it in.

But I was proud of that story. Despite the fact that pretty much no one was helping me very much, I still got it done. It felt good.

Went home. As I walked out of Union Station, a homeless man was singing "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel, which totally made my day, and I sang it basically the entire rest of the way home. Then as I passed by Armand's, a group of middle schoolers came out of the pizza place and one of their chaperones said, "Everybody! Look!!!" and pointed toward Union Station. "It's the SUN!!!"

I have no idea where these people were from. Alaska maybe? But they all clapped and cheered for the sun. So funny.

I got looped into a March Madness pool at work - I kept telling the guy next to me that I genuinely don't understand the whole thing and I probably shouldn't do it. It went like this:

Scott: "Hey, want to be a part of our March Madness pool?"
Me: "Um, to be honest, I super don't understand the whole thing so I don't think that would really make sense."
S: "Oh, come on, it will be fun! It's not a big deal. And it's really easy."
Me: "Yeah, I don't think it's a great idea. I seriously don't get it."
S: "All you have to do is....*tries to explain it to me*"
Me: *Stares blankly*
S: "I'll just send you an invite. It will be fun."

So I'm in. Coco was trying to help me last night. I've been trying to do my research and learn about the teams and everything, but I just do not have time for that. So I googled "March Madness for Dummies" and found some very helpful blogs that give all kinds of tips. We'll see how it goes.

I spent a chunk of time working on my brackets. Then John brought us St. Patrick's Day cupcakes with lime-flavored frosting and green Jelly Bellies on top. Then I talked to my parents. And that was it.

Today I overslept (which is never a good idea on early deadline day) and got into the office around 10:20 a.m. I had a story assignment already that I had been given yesterday, and I had hoped to get some work done on it yesterday afternoon, but since I had such issues with the texting story, I didn't get a chance to do any work on it. And my deadline was like, no later than 1 p.m. today. So, needless to say, I was a little stressed out when I got to work.

Fortunately, getting a hold of the people I needed to talk to today was MUCH easier than yesterday, and I immediately got a hold of two people who were very helpful and basically made my whole story a breeze. I had it written and filed by noon - that's 400 words in an hour and a half! Woot!

I was pretty proud. So I got lunch at Corner Bakery and have just been hanging out, doing little pieces of work and reading. I'm making french bread pizza for progressive dinner tonight. It's actually kind of nice that Wednesdays are early deadline days, because it means I can get home early and help with progressive dinner stuff. Yay!

And then we have a Skype date with Erin and Juel tonight. That's pretty much it. I'll post the link to my census story I wrote today as soon as it goes up!

Stories

Eastern Market story:

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/EasternMarketvendorsforcedtorelocateduringrefurbishing.html

Traffic story:

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/Capital-Beltway-crash-snarls-morning-traffic-in-NoVa-Md-Fairfax-Dulles-toll-road-41159117.html

Failed Karaoke, Hillary Clinton and the NEWSeum

Friday

Well, the 20/20 viewing party on Friday night was a bit of a flop. It was really crowded and pretty boring, so Karin, Alyssa and I hightailed it out of there pretty quickly. We stayed for about 45 minutes, I think. We met some people from the Heritage Foundation, which was alright.

After we left, we figured we were in Dupont, so we might as well hang out for a little while. So we got ice cream at Larry's Homemade Ice Cream and Cupcake Shop and talked and had fun. Then we went over to Chad's house and watched a movie with him and some guys that live in his house.

Saturday

I slept until 1 p.m., woke up, realized my bread was moldy, my milk was sour and I had no fresh anything left. But I managed to find two pieces of bread that weren't moldy and make some toast. I also had cereal, but that was how I discovered the milk was sour. So, clearly I didn't finish it.

Took a shower and went to the American History Museum with Sarah and Christine from next door (both ASP). There were pretty much a million people there (spring break, jr. high trips, etc.), and we had to literally stand in lines to get into each exhibit we wanted to look at. But it was still fun. We got to see the ruby slippers, Kermit, Oscar the Grouch, the speed skates of Apollo Anton Ohno, the First Ladies' Exhibit, a bunch of old musical instruments, a bunch of Abraham Lincoln stuff, presidents' stuff, etc. It was fun.

We went back to the apartments and relaxed a bit. Then, we had girl's night.

A return trip to the now familar area of Alexandria and King Street was made, and we headed to the Rock It Grill for a night of karaoke...that didn't happen. Unfortunately, you have to be 21 to get into this karoake night, and at least half of our group of nine girls were not 21. So, the karaoke-ing didn't happen. But we ended up at a Tex-Mex place down the street that was really good. We demolished six baskets of chips with salsa. Then I ordered the Hangover Burger, which was a burger with chili, a fried egg, cheese, and bacon. It was pretty good. Better than Tommy's - sorry Dad!

Came back to the apartments only to find that John had purchased a life-size, cardboard Hillary Clinton. He had her propped up against the door to the lounge with her back to the entrance, so we thought she was a real person at first. When we got closer, she just genuinely scared the crap out of us.

Then Karin, Christine, Ryan and David and I watched "Extreme Days," that old Christian movie they made about eight years ago and released in theaters about the group of guys that take a roadtrip up the California coast. Totally cheesy and corny, but a fun throwback.

Sunday

Went to church at Capitol Hill Baptist. They're talking about Revelation right now, and this is most definitely expositional, straight from the Bible preaching. He taught for a solid hour on Revelation 1:9-20.

Free intern/college lunch afterward, where we had a pasta bake sort of thing wth rolls, salad, and peach cobbler. Yum.

Then it was time to go grocery shopping. It was just time. It was raining (it rained all weekend, pretty much), so Karin, Christine, and I took the bus down to Safeway. We got there, did our shopping as quickly as possible, and checked out, only to miss our bus just barely again. This time, though, it was due to the extremely slow woman at the register who was taking her sweet time talking to the bagger.

The next bus wasn't supposed to come for another 35 minutes, so we stood in debate of what to do. We couldn't walk back, because we had bought WAY too much food, and also, it was raining. We obviously couldn't take the bus at the moment, and we had no car. So, we decided to try and catch a cab, since it's only about a mile away.

We headed down to the street with our cart FULL of groceries, only to find out about halfway there that this Safeway has their carts on that automatic-lock thing when you go too far away. The cart wouldn't move. We thought, "Well, if we just get back into the good part, the lock will go away." WRONG. They do not unlock. So we were literally stuck in the middle of the Safeway parking lot in the rain with a shopping cart that won't move and no way to get home.

After a long time of unsuccessful pushing and pulling on the cart on our part, a nice man sitting in his truck outside of Safeway helped us carry it back to the curb, telling us we could just drive our car up to the curb. Too bad we didn't have a car.

So I was sent as the delegate to go catch a cab on the street. Unfortunately, there are not many cabs that go by this Safeway. I saw none. So I called a cab, only to find out it would be about a half hour before the cab got there - we could just wait for the bus at that rate. I headed back up to the Safeway overhang where Karin and Christine were waiting to tell them the bad news.

As we discussed what our next move would be, the man who had helped us carry the locked shopping cart came over to talk to us again. He was very nice, and explained that he wasn't a creeper, he wasn't trying to pick us up or anything, he just wanted to help. He told us that there are courtesy drivers for Safeway that have their own cars, but they are hired by Safeway and have ID and are totally legit, and they will drive you where you need to go for whatever amount of money you give them.

We had no other option at this point, and so we trusted him and took a van home with "Cowboy," whose real name was John something, and who had some sort of speaking impairment so he was extremely hard to understand. But that didn't stop him from talking.

He took us right home, we gave him some money and a big thank you and finally headed up the stairs with our many bags.

Then I talked to Juel for a while. And then Mandi's parents, who were here for the weekend, made us dinner - chicken parmigiana, spaghetti, salad, french bread, and Italian pastries for dessert. A real meal!!! Her parents are great and told us all kinds of stories about Mandi as a child, which was fantastic. We hung out for a while after dinner, just talking and enjoying being with good company.

We also got to watch a video of Andrea and John having a cheer-off. Andrea was a cheerleader, and John is the farthest thing from, but he's hilarious. It's pretty close to being the best video I've seen in a long time.

Then I cleaned the kitchen. It was my chore for the week, and let me tell you, the kitchen sure needed it. I spent a solid hour and a half cleaning, then Zack and I took a walk around the general area around the apartments, catching up since we haven't talked in a while.

Came back, mopped the floor in the kitchen, and then drank hot chocolate with my apartment-mates and we went crazy decorating our apartment (finally) with famous pieces of art defaced with pigs and pictures and name word things and all kinds of ridiculous junk. It's fantastic. Haha.

Monday (Today)

Newseum day! It was awesome. All of WJC went together to the Newseum instead of class, and spent the whole day looking around. The program paid for us to get in (and paid for lunch!) and let us be free in the building.

It was genuinely really cool. The place is six levels of pure journalism. There are exhibits on all kinds of stuff: The role that newspapers played in the assassination of Lincoln, a huge room containing tons of newspapers dating back to the 1500s that showed the progression of newspapers and simultaneously the way they portrayed the major historic events that have taken place, all the Pulitzer prize winning photos of the past 60 years, a whole thing on 9/11, lots of interactive exhibits, movies, just tons of journalism everything.

It was pretty fantastic.

Karin and I stayed until the museum closed with a couple other WJCers, and headed back to the apartments. Family dinner was tonight, and in honor of St. Patrick's Day, we had all green food. Chicken pesto pasta, salad, veggies, and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. Delicious as usual.

We had our bi-weekly worship night, and then I've just been hanging out with my apartmentmates. It's been good. I'm reallllllllly tired and I really don't feel like going to work in the morning, so I think I'm going to head to bed early. Beautiful.

Music and Passion Were Always the Fashion

At the Copacabana! Of course! This song has been stuck in my head all week. Just fyi.

Today has been a really chill day so far. We had to go to class this morning, even though we were initially told we wouldn't have to. So in a mini-rebellion, several of us decided to just climb out of bed and go to class in sweats and without getting ready at all. It only lasted about an hour, and then I went back to bed. For about two hours. Got up at 1 p.m. and showered and then we had another joint class with ASP where we had two women guest speakers who talked about gender discrimination in the work place.

Then WJC went to Ebenezers. Tonight I'm going with some of the WJC girls to a 20/20 viewing party that is dealing with some hot topics - medical marijuana, universal preschool, immigration, etc. Should be really interesting. I'm excited.

A bit of a rewind:

Wednesday

Work was not so good. I literally did nothing all day. It was kind of a bummer. But I got my cover letter for class done. And I took a nice lunch break and walked down to Potbelly and ate by myself. It was actually really fun.

Then at the end of the day, I was asked to cover a trial the next day. Turns out it was a rape trial, and I had to do a bunch of background reading and it wasn't very nice at all. At all. So after I had done all the reading, it turned out that the trial was delayed and I wouldn't have to cover it. So I put all of that horrendous stuff into my had for no reason, and it wasn't overly encouraging.

So I went home early, and went up to the roof and watched the sun set over the Capitol. It was really overcast and so the light over the Capitol was absolutely gorgeous. It kind of started sprinkling, too. It was perfect. Just what I needed.

We had progressive dinner. Jason and John made dessert this week, so we didn't have to do anything since it was our dessert week! It was beautiful. The girls next door did chips and carrots and cucmbers for appetizer, the boys did tacos for dinner, and then the dessert was African donuts (that I'm totally forgetting the name of) with vanilla ice cream. It was really good.

After we ate, we went around the whole group and did the "happies and the crappies." Basically, the worst and best part of our day. And then we all said who our favorite cousin was and why. Random, but funny.

Then Karin and I talked for a while in our room and I finished a last load of laundry and cleaned up my stuff. Then we watched last week's episode of The Office that we hadn't seen because we were at Watchmen. And then we just went to bed.

Thursday

Work. Better this time - I wrote two stories, one about a car accident that had majorly backed up traffic and one about the street closures near Eastern Market that were going to be happening soon. I met Alyssa for lunch at Cosi and it was lovely. We were there for far too long, but we had a really good time taking a break and talking to a real person.

On the way home from work, I called Erin, and we ended up talking my entire way home and then for like, two and half more hours once I got home. It was most excellent to hear her voice. And her advice and logic.

Then it was time for this week's episode of The Office. Watched it downstairs with everyone and then we watched 30 Rock, too. I like that show. It is genuinely funny.

Called my family afterward, and made some pasta because I had been too busy talking to Erin to eat dinner.

That was pretty much it.

In other news, I get to do another Personal Best profile - this time a fencer! Yay! I really like doing these.

Links to My Recent Stories

Spring Break story:

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/Travel-advisory-affects-area-students-plans-0306-40822727.html

Abe Lincoln story:

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/Expert-Im-positive-1865-photo-is-of-Lincoln_03_11-41063732.html

3-minute Interview:

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/3-minute-interview---Martin-Wilder-Jr-40998237.html

The Blog of All Blogs

It has been a full week since I updated. A week is a very long time, and I have done a whole stinkin’ lot in that period of time. Therefore, this is going to be very long, and I am sorry.

But it was a pretty darn excellent week, so you should really enjoy this.

Today, I got into work and was sent on an errand by the crime guys. I had to go to the circuit court in Alexandria, Va., to pick up an indictment. Alexandria’s pretty far away, so it took me an hour to get out there, and then I had to go in and get the paper. The man behind the counter was extremely helpful in showing me how to work the system so if I have to go back I could do it myself.

It was fun, though. The court is located in Old Town Alexandria, which is a really cute area with tons of restaurants and shops and all kinds of stuff. I really wanted to hang out and shop, but considering I was there for work, I figured this wouldn’t be the best time. I did stop at the Pentagon City Mall on the way back, though, to grab some lunch in the food court.

All of this is just so very ironic, though. The court was located ON King Street. To understand why this is all so ironic, please see the “Saturday” section in this blogpost.

Then I was given a story about this really old picture that they think has Lincoln in it, standing in front of the White House. My editor gave it to me, saying it would probably be pretty hard to get a hold of the right people for this, but to give it a whirl and I did it! I got a hold of the man who owns the photograph and talked to him about it and then talked to another curator.

I love Lincoln. So this has been a good day. Between getting to be out and about for the morning and then spending the afternoon doing a fun story about something I think is interesting – I can’t complain.

Ok. I’ll start updating.

Tuesday

Nothing super exciting that evening. I got home and had a package from Grandma Marty! Thanks Grandma =) I like it a lot, and I definitely keep snacking on the chocolates. Delicious!

Talked to Lisa and Juliette (separately) for a while, and then talked the parents.

Wednesday

Spring break story extravaganza! I worked my butt off on that thing, trying to contact everyone and their mom, looking for “one tree” (to quote Tmatt) that I could focus my story on. Finally I got a hold of someone at American University who told me there was a group going to Oaxaca, Mexico, and were supposed to do a service project and it didn’t work out. I called people all over the place to try and get a hold of students, and finally talked to the main student leader for the Oaxaca trip at like, 8 p.m. Fortunately, I didn’t have to have the story done until Thursday morning, so I had still gone home at a normal time, but yeah.

I wrote up a basic draft of the story that night at home (after progressive dinner), but it wasn’t turning out the way I wanted it to, so I decided to take a break from it and just finish my own edits in the morning.

So for progressive dinner, my apartment made quesadillas (appetizer), the girls next door made a pasta bake (dinner) and the boys bought ice cream bars (a variety from 7-11’s freezer). A bunch of people were sick, and ASP had just finally finished a huge project that day, so we had a non-progressive dinner in just one apartment that didn’t last super long.

After I had done my article work, Danielle and I went down to the student lobby to hang out because we were tired of our apartment. Some people were watching Terminator 3, so we watched for a while. It was kind of dumb.

That was pretty much it.

Thursday

I wasn’t supposed to work on Thursday – it was supposed to be the first day of our so-called “spring break.” However, my editor needed me to finish the story and all, so I went in for about two hours. I did my own edits, sent it in, he edited it with me and then I was done.

I met Karin at Chipotle and we had lunch. Then we went to the Air and Space Museum and spent the whole afternoon there. We were there for three-and-a-half hours, and we only got through half of the top floor. We are really intense about museums.

And we saw the Red Baron plane, and it made me remember the last time I went to the Air and Space Museum with my family, like 5-6 years ago. My dad has always loved that old Snoopy vs. the Red Baron song, and I very clearly remember listening to his old record of it plenty of times when I was young. It was a Brown family tradition to pull out all his old records every once in a while and play them all. Generally it was a summer night, but they were always great – those nights are also where my great appreciation for The Beatles came from. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is a favorite – blame my father.

Anyways, the last time we were at this museum, my dad went crazy when we saw the Red Baron plane. He was like a child who was just told ice cream would be free for the rest of his life. He didn’t stop singing Snoopy vs. the Red Baron for days. So naturally, I had to let him know that I was there, and he got excited and posted the link to the YouTube version on Facebook. That link I provide now for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxzg_iM-T4E

Karin and I returned the apartments, and ended up ordering dinner with Yvette from this place called “Panda.” We ate dinner and then the three of us ended up dancing with Ren. We learned the Cupid Shuffle, taught Yvette the Electric Slide, and then all learned the Souljha Boy dance.

A whole lot of people left Thursday, because it was spring break weekend. And Friday was Chad’s birthday, and he really wanted to see “Watchmen,” so in celebration of his birthday, pretty much the rest of us who were left went with him to the midnight showing of the movie.

I really didn’t like the movie, to be perfectly honest. I mean, I was interested the whole time, but it was far too bloody, violent, graphic and then some. Watching some guy get his hands sawed off just really isn’t my cup of tea. But the experience as a whole was fun. We had a lot of fun while we were waiting for it to start. We traveled to several different fast food places around the theater getting everyone different food, and then went into the building and played cards. I taught Jason how to play Speed, and then he taught a group of us to play Yuker (?).

We watched the movie. Bleh. And then, considering that it was practically 3 a.m. and the Metro wasn’t running anymore, the entire group of us proceeded to walk back from the theater in Chinatown. There really wasn’t any safety issue, considering there were at least 15 of us, if not more. But it was really late and I was really tired and I really didn’t want to walk practically two miles home. But I had to. Mandi and I eventually ended up arm in arm singing old Christian songs.

We finally arrived back at the apartments around 3:45 a.m., and passed out around 4:30 a.m.

Friday

Karin and I slept until 2 p.m. It was beautiful. We went to Target, then came back and showered and then met up with a bunch of the boys to go celebrate Chad’s birthday at the ESPN Zone.

It was Karin and I, then Chad, Cole, Jason, John, Jeremy, Zack, and Mark, and then we met David there. Chad wanted to go there because he wanted to play arcade games, and this was the only place you could bring people who are under 21, I guess. We put our name in and then went down to pay games.

It is expensive to play arcade games, and I really didn’t feel like that was the best use of my funds, so I didn’t buy any credits to play the games. However, that just meant that the guys offered to pay for the games for me. I honestly didn’t see this coming and didn’t ask for it in any way – but I did accept them. So we played multiple games of air hockey, basketball, a hockey version of foosball, racing, all kinds of stuff. Let’s just say it paid for Karin and I to be the only girls there =)

We didn’t get called for two hours. Fortunately, that wasn’t too bad, because we had the games to entertain us, but we were starving – we weren’t seated until 9:45 p.m. There were a lot of us and we were at a long table, so the people I really conversed with were Jason, John, David, and Karin. Cole hopped in sometimes. I ordered a chicken sandwich. It was really just a total blast. I love hanging out with those guys. We had so much fun talking and just hanging out, and Jason and I finally finished our conversation about “Kite Runner,” and John told us about his little sister and we talked philosophy. It was just great.

Finally around 11:30 p.m., we headed out of the restaurant and went over to Chad’s house (Chad was the one who was dismissed from the program. The director of ASP helped him find housing in the area so he could keep his internship. We can still hang out with him, he just can’t be on the grounds of the program). We were supposed to play Wii, but the TV was occupied, so we just hung out and talked and told stories until we were tired, and then headed back to the apartments. Finally got to bed around 3 a.m., I think?

Saturday

Karin and I decided to go to Arlington. We woke up around 11 a.m. and got ready, and invited the girls next door (Mandi, Andrea, and Christine). It turned into a much bigger party than we had anticipated, but it ended up being really fun with all those people. We ended up with me and Karin, Andrea, Mandi, Christina, Jason, Jeremy, Zack, Mark, and then Cole met us there.

We walked around the cemetery for a couple of hours and saw JFK’s gravesite, Robert Kennedy’s memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (where we got to see the changing of the guard), lots and lots and lots of graves, and then we went over to Iwo Jima.

The cemetery closed at 5 p.m., so we eventually got kicked out, but Eli was going to a concert in Alexandria that was supposed to be really cool, so we all decided to go. We decided to meet Eli at the Pentagon City mall. We got to the mall way before her, so we hit the food court and got dinner. After we had shoved our faces, we still had time, and Jason really wanted to go to FAO Schwartz that was apparently in the mall, so we went in search of it.

Well, the FAO Schwartz wasn’t a whole store – it was a small corner in Macy’s. We were all disappointed, to say the least, but it still proved highly entertaining. Within moments, we had all chosen different stuffed animals and were hugging them, petting them, throwing them, telling stories about our own stuffed animals, taking pictures – everything.

We eventually moved on to Brookstone, which is always fun, and then landed in Sweet Factory so Jason could get his atomic fireballs. Finally Eli and her friend showed up, and we went to meet them at the bus stop.

After waiting for the bus for about 20 minutes, Eli called the bus stop number and we found out we still had at least 20 minutes until the bus came. There was a park across the street, so we went in search of a playground.

We found one, but it sadly had no swings. Swings are the best part. But the group of us still enjoyed reliving our childhood by using the monkey bars and sliding down the slides and all that kind of fun stuff.

Finally the bus came, and we took it to the next place, where we had to catch another bus. But the next bus wasn’t coming for like another 40 minutes (apparently the buses in Virginia run much less frequently than in DC), and this bus station had no park nearby. So we were bored for a long time. But the bus finally came, and dropped us off in a residential area that wasn’t where we were supposed to be. After walking around for at least 15 minutes and asking someone in a car for directions, we finally found the concert venue.

We were an hour late, so we missed the entire first act, but we arrived during an intermission sort of time, so we went in and got seats and water because we were tired and thirsty, and enjoyed the concert.

First off, the venue was awesome. It was a small building, really cozy feeling. Second, the guy we saw was fantastic. His name was Will Gray, and he was an R&B artist. There was another guy who did the hip-hop thing with him, but then he was backed up by an acoustic guitar, a banjo, a cello, and the turntables guy. It was really sweet. Very interesting group, and I loved the sounds it produced.

The concert lasted about an hour after we got there, and then we headed back to the bus stop. It was about 10:45 p.m., and after we had been sitting at the bus stop for at least 15 minutes, we remembered seeing a sign that had told us the bus stopped running at 9:30 p.m.

So, since we couldn’t take the bus home, we had no idea where the nearest Metro was, and we were in the middle of very residential Alexandria, we started trying to figure out what to do. A couple people decided to call a cab. The rest of us decided to try to walk to the Pentagon Metro stop, which was were the second bus had picked us up.

We walked a long ways and finally ran into the main road and found a gas station. Chad asked the guy working there how to get to the Pentagon, and apparently the guy just laughed at him. He told us the nearest Metro was two miles down on King Street. So we started walking.

Fortunately, the weather had been beautiful – muggy and humid, but beautiful and warm. It was nowhere near cold, and we couldn’t have asked for a much better night to be stuck walking two miles to the Metro.

It was a fairly uneventful walk, with the exception of quite a few yells from cars passing us by. I walked mostly with Jason, talking about camps we went to in high school and natural disasters. We finally made it to the Metro – on King Street – and made it back alive (though very tired and sweaty) to the apartments around 1 a.m.

This is the irony of today. The court I had to go to was literally off the exact same Metro stop – King Street – that we walked to the other night. Everything was very familiar. When I found out that’s where I had to go, I just started laughing.

Sunday

Went to Union Station theater church at 11:30 a.m. Got back, ate, went with Karin, Ren, and Yvette to the Capitol because Yvette wanted me to take some pictures of her to send to her school. So we did a photo shoot. It was quite fun.

Then Yvette and I talked for a while. Then I did the reading for class and fell asleep. Then I did some laundry. Ate dinner. Played speed with Karin. Then Yvette came in and invited us to come see the monuments at night with a bunch of people.

I headed downstairs to see if everyone was ready to go, and a bunch of people were congregated in the alleyway next to the Dellenback Center, looking up. I joined the group and got the scoop: apparently, a bunch of the guys had found a huge stuffed dog in dumpster and thought it was too great to leave there. So, they pulled it out and were trying to drop it from the roof onto the light post below and get it to stay there.

After several attempts, they finally succeeded. The dog stayed on that light post for a full day before the wind knocked it down.

There were some upset neighbors, though. But it wasn’t even 9:30 p.m.

After the dog thing was over, we headed out to the monuments. We went to the White House first, then to the Washington Monument, the WWII and ended at the Lincoln. The Reflecting Pool is completely empty right now. So we walked in it.

The Metro stopped running at midnight, so we had to walk home. Fortunately, once again it was gorgeous outside. Absolutely gorgeous. Even more beautiful than Saturday night. I was in a tanktop, jeans, and flip-flops at 1 a.m. outside and I wasn’t even cold. Love it.
Monday

Class in the morning. Lunch with everyone together, so sort of family lunch? We had soup and crackers and dips and salad and a mixture of things. This week is the middle week of the whole semester, also the middle week of our Foundations class that has two weeks at the beginning of the semester, one week in the middle, and two weeks at the end. That means, apparently, that we do more stuff with ASP. Fun. I’m not complaining.

We had a guest speaker all together for the afternoon session. He was late, though, so we got some extra free time. Alyssa and I went to Jacob’s and got caffeine. Then we went back and listened to him. Steve Garber, I think it was? I drew a picture of him in my notes. I’m pretty proud of it. Except his eyes and his nose should be closer together than I drew him. I listened, too.

Then Alyssa, Mandi, Andrea, Karin, and I took our vocational tests that we have to take for class. It was an online thing that tells you what you should be.

My two defining traits are: 1. Artistic (like a whole lot) and 2. Social (kind of a lot too)

I pretty much agreed with everything it told me. It seemed to get me pretty well. My number one career option was elementary school teacher. Could have told you that one. Also high were musician, child care assistant, photographer, caterer and restaurant manager. I’ve considered all of these.

Surprised? No, not really. A little surprised that newspaper reporter didn’t show up higher, but I don’t really want to be a newspaper reporter for the rest of my life. I want to do something journalistic, but I don’t think newspaper (at least not big newspaper like right now) is my calling. Community newspaper? I could totally do that. I think this survey shows my disillusionment with newspaper writing at the moment. And probably the lack of child interaction.

Yep. That’s me in a nutshell.

Then we had family dinner, also. We had quiche. Yum. I love quiche. And there were strawberries and brownies. Delicious. I sat with a bunch of girls, mostly talked with Mandi and Alyssa. It was a blast. Mandi spilled her water. But we don’t talk about it.

Then I talked to Mandi and Andrea for a while. Then couldn’t find anyone, so went downstairs. Christine was watching TV so I joined. She and I and Jason watched the Daily Show. Then Geoff came in and we all decided to watch Robin Hood. It started out with 4 of us and grew to like, 12. I haven’t watched that movie in so long. Haha.

And that was pretty much it. Went to bed. Then did today! And you know about today. I promise I won’t go that long without updating again. It’s not a good way to go.