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.