Summertime Book Fever

I have to wonder, is there anything better in life than getting wrapped up in a good book?

Sometimes I get so into books that it takes a few minutes after closing them to come back to reality.  It's like my life has become the story, and the "real world" is just a strangely hazy existence.  I can only think about and feel for the characters.  I ruminate on them until I can open the spine again, like I'm savoring the last bite of dessert all night.

I am conflicted between racing through the pages or not.  I rush to find out what happens next, but I also want to take in every last word and detail to get the full experience the author intended.  When I finish the last page, I am happy for a few minutes.  I sit in silence pondering what I just read and really taking it in, but then I feel an emptiness.  I wonder and doubt how any other book I read next could ever entrance me in the same way.  Then a few weeks or months later, the story leaves me.  I can recall the main gist, but those little intricacies that made it so addicting have fled my memories.

If I haven't had the time to start another book, I forget how the rush of emotions and adrenaline felt with each turn of the page, and I look at my bookshelf uninterested.  It doesn't seem worth investing time into a book to lose time to watch TV, browse the internet, play guitar, or indulge in other down time activities.

But every summer, my book fever starts anew, and I cannot imagine doing anything else but reading.

Going Out With a Bang!

The end is in sight!  This time next week I will be home, sweet home.  I've had a pretty good week, and I think I did as much as I could this last weekend in DC!

Yesterday, I got up early (for me, on a Saturday) and walked down to Union Station to get some coffee and a delicious baked good for breakfast.  Then I headed over to Constitution Avenue by the mall for the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade.  It was a good time, though it felt kind of weird to be at a parade without my parents, especially my dad.  He is all about the parades.  There were some fairly famous people in it including Debbie Gibson, Javier Colon (winner of The Voice), Haley Reinhart (from American Idol), Gymkata (America's Got Talent), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton, Kristi Yamiguchi, and Marie Osmond.  There were also some neat balloons of Miss Piggy, Kermit, cherry blossoms, Japanese lanterns, Scooby Doo, and the tomato and cucumber from Veggie Tales.  Of course, there were lots of marching bands, police, military, and clowns, as well.  It was pretty long (10am-12:30pm).  I was a little disappointed in some ways though.  They had all these famous singers in the parade, yet they weren't singing.  They were only riding in cars or on floats.  The gymnastics teams like Gymkata didn't stop to do any routines really either.  They just did a few flips as they walked by.  There were also some pretty big gaps in the parade.  Sheboygan's 4th of July parade has me spoiled!

Cherry blossom balloons

Cool old-fashioned dresses

Scooby Doo

Kristi Yamiguchi

After that, I headed over towards downtown and ate lunch at Potbelly's.  I then met up with one of my roommates and her sister to go to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  We bought discounted tickets through Groupon a long time ago, but didn't find a time to go until now.  It was a lot of fun to come up with fun pictures to take with each figure.  The first section was the presidents, then there was a Hollywood section, musicians, some athletes, and news anchors.  Obviously, since its in DC, the presidents were the emphasis, and those are cool, but I think the Hollywood stars and musicians are a bit more fun.  It didn't seem that big to us.  We finished and all looked at each other and went, "that's it?" but it was definitely worth $10.  I might have been a bit more disappointed if I had paid for the full price $20 ticket.

Lincoln and I in his box at Ford's Theatre

Bill, Hillary, and I

Just making some phone calls from the Oval Office

The Obamas

George Clooney and I on our first date

Thriller!

Being interviewed by Oprah

Then, Angelica and her sister had talked about going to the Washington Nationals game since there were some discounted tickets, so we headed that way.  We got free t-shirts for filling out surveys, and the game was lots of fun!  I hadn't been to any professional sports games before I came here, and now I've been to three: basketball, soccer, and baseball.  The Nationals beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-1.

Washington Nationals vs. Cincinnati Reds

At Nationals Park

Today I started packing up some stuff in my room, went for a walk/run on the Mall, rehearsed my final presentations, and relaxed.  Only a few days of work and classes left!  I'm listening to the new Jason Mraz album as I write this (which is wonderful of course), and I just bought tickets to see him in August, which is also exciting!  I'm feeling happy and excited.

Last Visitors and Wrapping Up

The House wasn't in session last week so it was pretty slow at work.  My Aunt Jean, cousin Judy, and her partner, Olivia, came to visit over the weekend.  I took them on a tour of the Capitol on Friday, and we had a nice lunch at Cosi afterward.  Unfortunately it was a bit of a gray day, as you can see in the picture.  They headed to the National Portrait Gallery, and I headed back to work.  I met up with them later to eat dinner in Chinatown.  We tried Nando's Peri-Peri, a Portuguese restuarant.  It was very good, and I'm impressed with myself that I have now tried a type of food that Ben hasn't.  That is a pretty incredible feat if you know my brother!  Their menu was mostly chicken and sides, and you could get it at varying degrees of hot.  I had a chicken breast and a grilled corn on the cob.  Then, as you must do in DC, Judy was interested in getting a cupcake somewhere.  We were all much too stuffed right after dinner to go, so we took a walk back to Union Station to help with that.  There is a cupcake place in Union Station, but by the time we got there they didn't have much.  So we had some treats at possibly my favorite place ever, Au Bon Pain, instead.

All of us in front of the Capitol

Saturday I got some errands and school work done in the afternoon.  They went on a bus tour around to some of the famous monuments and places in DC.  Judy and Olivia had some friends in DC they were going to have dinner with so I got Aunt Jean all to myself for dinner.  I introduced her to Potbelly's (yum!), and we had a good time.  Then I got home and saw a story on Facebook on Obama celebrating St. Patrick's Day at the Dubliner.  I could not believe it!  It is an Irish pub in the Phoenix Park Hotel, where Jean, Judy, and Olivia were staying.  I had just gotten home from taking Aunt Jean back to her room there, and it's only a few blocks from where I live.  I can't believe he was so close to where I was, and I missed him! Oh well.

On Sunday, they decided to rent a car and go to Mount Vernon as well as drive around to a few other places.  I went along, too.  I absolutely loved Mount Vernon when I came to DC in high school so I definitely wanted to go back.  It was a gorgeous day - cool in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.  We first ate lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn, then walked around the gardens and some of the surrounding little rooms, and finally toured the mansion, went to the tomb, and everything else.  Afterward we tried to drive through Arlington National Cemetery, but it was already close to 5 and they were closing.  We went to the Pentagon Memorial and drove past some beautiful cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin!  We returned the car, had dinner at Armand's across the street from my house, and watched The Descendants at the hotel. 

Me at Mount Vernon

Aunt Jean at Mount Vernon

Gorgeous flower in the Mt. Vernon gardens

Picture of the Capitol my aunt bought me

Me and Aunt Jean at Dinner

Aunt Jean, Judy, and I at Dinner

There's less than a month left!  I got most of my remaining schoolwork done this week so I can relax the rest of my time here and not feel guilty about doing fun things.  I just have one 2 page theater review to do after we see 1776 next week, a short journal entry to write, and then my two final presentations for each class.  Things are really wrapping up.  I am getting excited to go home, be with my family, graduate, hang out with my friends, and do some summer activities!  Hopefully I'll find a job somewhere along the way, too :]

Everything is blooming in DC, including the infamous cherry blossoms, so I decided to go out this weekend to get some pictures before its past the peak.  Mother Nature is being a jerk though, as it was rainy all today and will be tomorrow, too.  The rain didn't deter me, but the sun would have really made for better pictures.

Awesome purple tree in front of Capitol

Tulips at Library of Congress

Tulips at Capitol

Cherry Blossoms at Tidal Basin

Jefferson Memorial and Cherry Blossoms

Me with the Cherry Blossoms

Washington Monument with Cherry Blossoms

Thankfully I went when I did, because it started to rain pretty hard around lunchtime when I was finishing up and going to go eat and do some shopping.  It was only sprinkling when I was walking around in the morning.  Shopping was a failure.  I didn't get anything I was looking for clothes-wise, though I did get groceries.  Tomorrow I may attempt to shop again a bit, then probably just relax and do some final edits to my research paper and final theater project.  I can't believe next time I post, it will be April!

Halfway There Already!

Wow.  This weekend it really hit me.  I'm about halfway through my time in DC.  There are exactly two months left.  It has gone pretty fast, but I got hit with some homesickness this week because it has been so long.  It didn't help that I had a pretty stressful week and didn't get a chance to talk to my mom for about 5 days, which is probably the longest we've ever gone without talking.  This week was pretty crazy with ups and downs, and I think the stress of this whole situation is finally getting to me a bit.  I cannot wait until the two weekends in March when I will have visitors.  I think that will definitely lift my spirits again.  I'm just trying to stay positive and enjoy every moment.

On a weird side note, I really miss driving my car and singing along to my music, too.  I just realized I really haven't been listening to any music here since I usually do that when in the car or working out.  It is so weird!  I need my music to relax.

A highlight of my work week was that I actually met Clyburn for the first time.  I've seen him around before but never had the chance to officially introduce myself so that was good.  I've been working in the Capitol office more lately so hopefully I will get more interaction with him and the communications director.  I hope to get some PR work soon and make the most of the rest of my time here at work getting some good experience.

A peek inside of our Capitol office

On Wednesday, I got to judge the "We The People" competition at Chavez Prep Middle School here in DC.  The students had to prepare little speeches on different aspects of government like "why is voting important?" and "what would happen if there was no civic participation in government?"  The speech and debate nerd inside of me was so excited to help these kids.  It was a neat little excursion from work.

I also (sort of) went to a committee hearing this week that ended up being big news.  It was the Oversight and Government Reform committee's hearing on "Religious Freedom" or "Obama and Separation of Church and State," but it ended up being more of a hearing on the whole contraception issue that has been going on lately.  It was on the news a lot because there were no women on the panel, which was pretty crazy since it was a discussion about contraception.  It was pretty fiery in the beginning with the Democrats and Republicans going at it about who is credible to be a witness at a hearing and why some people didn't qualify that the Dems submitted.  I didn't get there in time to actually sit in the committee room and a lot of the seats were reserved anyway, so I watched it on a TV in an overflow room.  I wish I had gotten there earlier and I maybe could have gotten a seat and been on national news!  I had no idea the hearing was going to be such a big deal.

On Saturday, I went shopping with my roommate in Friendship Heights.  It is a really nice, ritzy area.  It was the first time I was in a Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, or Anthropologie.  I got some cute shirts at Nordstrom Rack and got some good exercise in with all the walking.  It was a really nice day out, and it was fun just to do some looking and window shopping.

Sunday was another museum day!  I went to the National Museum of the American Indian.  I had heard the Mitsitam Cafe there was a great place to eat from a few people so I made sure to go at lunchtime.  I had an "Indian Taco" which was chili, pinto beans, diced tomatoes, cheese, and lettuce on fry bread.  It was very good, but a bit pricey.  Then I toured the museum.  This wasn't a museum that was top on my list of things to do, but I must say all of the smithsonians are just so well done.  The design of the building and all of the displays is really neat to admire, even if you're not that interested in the content.  The building itself is kind of wavy on the outside, and the displays are shaped similarly.  Afterwards, I decided to go through the United States Botanic Garden and Conservatory since it was right next door.  Obviously since it is winter, the garden wasn't too much to see, but I will definitely have to go back in the spring.  The conservatory was really neat.  They had a big display of different kinds of orchids.  I got some cool pictures there.

National Museum of the American Indian

Indian dress

U.S. Conservatory

Beautiful white orchid!

Purple orchid

Since all federal buildings are closed on President's Day, this was a three day weekend for me, and I had an extra day to explore.  It was nice, and I didn't feel bad that I just stayed in all today working on some schoolwork, playing my uke, and catching up on my TV shows.