4 in 1 special!

I can't believe I haven't updated this blog for 4 days -- I don't even have a good excuse for not updating you all on what I've been doing recently. Here goes:

FRIDAY:

Work as usual, nothing really new there except for the office picnic at noon. I met a few people from other departments, ate lots of good food, and discussed dogs w/ one of the vets (Wendy, I think) from a department that AC works closely with. It was nice to meet lots of people in a casual setting rather than in the hall or in the break room and the convo with Wendy was interesting, even if I got put on the defensive for not going to vet school and considering a dog from a breeder as the next addition to my pack lol.

I got to leave work early since everyone else was working from home in the afternoon; got home around 3:30pm or so. :)

Bummed around for the rest of the evening.

SATURDAY:

Got up early and headed to the White House for a tour. I found it quite overhyped and rather disappointing. I'm glad Lawrence got us an appointment -- I would've been mad if I had waited in a long line for the 'tour'. While it was neat to be inside the famous building, the tour was self guided and only went through about 7 or 8 rooms in the East Wing. The rooms were smaller than I expected and very traditionally styled (which I did expect). Luckily there were only a few spots where the walkway was crowded so I was able to get an unobstructed view of the rooms for the most part and didn't feel rushed.

Note: no bags or cameras of any kind are allowed and there are no facilities to leave them at while taking the tour!! Jeanna and I ended up switching off who went on the tour and who stayed outside w/ the bags. The tour took us each about 30 mins, so no one was too bored waiting for the other.

On our walk to the White House, Jeanna and I passed the Treasury Building and Lafayette Park. The Treasury is a very impressive building; the park seems rather small and non discript.

Once back at the dorm, we headed out for our Saturday habit -- grocery shopping!! Once we got back, I did some research for my Trinidad paper and played online.

Around 8:30pm or so we went downstairs to watch movies and were there until about 11:30pm. Met two law students who are interning and studying in DC and talked to them for a bit - they live right down the hall I found out, so we might end up doing something with them again sometime.

SUNDAY:

Got up late (12:30pm lol), ate breakfast, and spent the whole day in the room researching for my paper and generally being a bum.

Sunday night was another movie night with Jeanna (a few guys showed up too but I have no idea who they were lol, just that they live in the dorm as well and speak Spanish).

MONDAY:

Work again. I'm running low on things to do, so I think I may talk to my boss about getting a special project to work on. I talked to him today and it sounds like I will get to shadow an inspector sometime next week -- def looking forward to that!!

The fire alarm went off at work today, so I got to walk down 6 flights of stairs in heels, stand in the hot, humid parking lot for 20 mins, and then climb back up the 6 flights of stairs (too impatient to wait for an elevator w/ all the other people in the building). What an experience!

This evening Jeanna and I wandered about the Mall -- probably walked about 3 or 4 miles I would guess. We saw a lot and I took a ton of pictures which I will try to share in the near future. The World Adult Kickball Association was holding their tournament on the Capitol end, there were numerous softball games scattered about, tents were set up for the Folklife Festival, and there were a lot of people wandering like us or being ambitious and running on the path around the Mall. We walked from the Capitol end to the end near the Washington Monument (impressive in the setting sun), then headed back toward home when we noticed storm clouds gathering in the distance.

I got some awesome pics of the Capitol and various buildings in the setting sun in front of a backdrop of dark clouds -- I LOVE my camera!! I even got to use the night setting to catch some neat views of the reflecting pool near the Capitol in the twilight. :)

Now I'm hanging out in my room listening to the radio and trying to figure out whether I should go to bed now or later lol.