A Flicker of Hope

6.30.12 and 7.1.12

I woke up and did not have a clue what time it was.  My microwave clock was not on, and my phone was completely dead.  I turned my phone on long enough to see it was around 9:15 am.  My thoughts: “I still don’t have power, it is 9 on a Saturday, my basement is still half-way cool, I’m going back to sleep.”

And that is exactly what I did until around 10:30 until my IF dad came and knocked on my door.  He assumed I was up (since I normally am by this time).  I woke up and was told the power was still out.  Alrighty then. 

Not too upset over being up, I wandered upstairs to see how everyone else was.  There were lots of small tree limbs and leaves in our cul-de-sac, and we were the lucky ones.  A cul-de-sac over, a tree had split in half, been partially uprooted, and fallen on two cars (luckily, they didn’t appear to have taken much damage). 

After debating for a minute on how I could charge my phone, I realized I could use my car charger (at least, for a while.  Eventually keeping my phone in my car raised the battery temperature to a level too high to continue charging.  Phones are so smart these days).  I was going to check on my phone at one point when our neighbor, who moved in around the same time, came over to talk to us.

His name was Chris.  He worked for AT&T and was a very interesting individual. We discussed the stock market and then Austrian and Keynesian economics.  Chris is Chinese, so he had some interesting world views.  He seemed to be very skeptical of Austrian economics working, but didn’t think that Keynesian worked either.  We had a fascinating discussion.

After my economics discussion, I decided I needed to shower (luckily, the hot water heater is gas, so plenty of hot water!).  I wandered inside and showered in the dark (kind of creepy) and got ready by the light of my flashlight app.  It was quite the adventure.  I am just happy my basement stays relatively cool! 

Around 11:45 I was bored of just doing nothing and I needed to charge my phone more.  I started up the good’ol escape and started driving.  I finally managed to get cell service (that’s another thing, something must have knocked out the cell tower, because neither my IF nor Chris had cell service) and found out that GMU had power.  My random driving had actually brought me very close to the campus, so I informed my friend Thomas “Cheesy” Cheeseman that he should expect company!  He was very gracious and opened up his dorm apartment to me!

I was able to charge my phone on Taylor’s charger (Thanks Taylor…you didn’t know I used it, but I appreciate it!) and I chatted with Cheesy for a bit.  Since Thom hadn’t showered, and I hadn’t eaten, I decided to run to McD’s (along with everyone else in the area) and let him shower.  After a short wait, I was able to get my food and headed back to the AC of Cheesy’s room! 

A group of KIPers were going to wander around Georgetown and I was debating on going.  Thomas at first refused, but I eventually bribed him into going with the promise of seeing the school (which I also wanted to see, but we didn’t actually manage to see, oops!).  So, much later than the original meeting time, we headed to Georgetown to meet up with people.

We wandered around the area, stopping in at an Italian suit shop that was going out of business and a really sketchy souvenir shop, before meeting up with the rest of the group.  From there we wandered some more.  I wanted to get either ice cream/frozen yogurt or Cupcakes (from the famous Georgetown Cupcakes) but that never materialized.  Georgetown cupcakes had a line out the door, and we didn’t want to wait (but I will go back. I will get cupcakes, I shall enjoy them!).  Instead we navigated the street and then made our way down to the waterfront.  It was a pretty waterfront, but by this point, we had been walking around for a few hours, in 100+degree heat, and I was quite warm and very thirsty. 

A few members of our group were hungry, so the group decided to try the Tacklebox, a local fish joint. I wasn’t all that hungry (plus, we were going to order pizza and hang out at GMU later that night) so I just ingested high amounts of water and iced tea.  Time was passing by, and we were supposed to meet a couple people back at Cheesy’s GMU apartment so we (that is, Garrett, Thomas, and I) departed from the group and headed back to the Metro—harassing Garrett (aka Ken Doll) the entire time.

While it took us much longer than planned to get back, we finally made it to Vienna/Fairfax and I ordered Dominos on my handy-dandy-newly-downloaded Dominos app.  I ran inside my (still dark) apartment and grabbed my laptop and charger.  We had decided to watch a movie once Emily and Kevin arrived. 

It just so happened that as we were walking to my apartment, Kevin was already at Thom’s room (oops) so we were in a bit of a hurry.  Luckily, Emily was running behind as well, so the majority rules.  We grabbed Kevin from GMU, ran to Dominos to get the pizzas and then next door to Giant (a grocery store like Kroger’s or IGA, but I may have already mentioned that) and got some drinks, a small USA Cake (even though Emily doesn’t support being patriotic) and a few other food items to go with our pizza. 

Finally, we made it back to GMU with food (by this point, I was hungry).  Emily had beaten us to GMU, but she quickly had to leave again to go get gas.  We decided to chillax until she got back, meaning we ate pizza and hurled insults at one another.  Typical guy stuff.  Once Emily got back, Garrett decided he wanted to open the cake.  I say open because he didn’t cut it, he simply opened it.  Emily mocked the joys of the USA, professing herself to be a staunch Communist.  Can you believe that?  She must be a mole, trying to infiltrate the free-market movement, having us all fooled by her Asian economist pseudonym.  But know this:  We are onto you Emily! 

After many rambling conversations about some hilariously controversial topics, Emily convinced us to watch The Dark Knight (it was a hard sell too, I mean, we were all soo opposed to watching it!).  For the rest of the evening, Kevin, Emily, Cheesy, and I had a group cuddle (ok, so not really) on the couch while watching The Dark Knight.  At least, until a live action Police Drama started outside of Cheesy’s window.  A GMU police officer pulled over a car and then, for the next hour to hour and a half, kept the driver and passengers there.  I don’t have a clue what went down, other than someone had to come and drive the car with the original driver and the other occupants away. Quite the excitement (I felt like the world’s biggest creeper). 

When The Dark Knight was over, it was time to call it a night.  I had to run Garrett to the Metro stop, and we were all tired, so we disbanded our little group (which had acquired two of Cheesy’s other roommates) and went our separate ways. 

I was really hoping that my power would be back on when I got home.  I was momentarily optimistic when I noticed that one traffic light that had previously been out was on…at least, until I got to the next light that was still out.  It was strange to be driving thru an area with lights and then, the next block is completely black. It was incredibly eerie.  Almost like something from a horror or war movie.  

After arriving back to my apartment (with a small spark of hope left) I walked into the dark house.  Still, no power.  I walked down to the basement—which I am incredibly happy I decided on—and got ready for bed in the dark.  When I was apartment hunting, a small voice kept saying live in a tall apartment building. I wanted to have the experience of an apartment building, but I am ever so thankful I decided to take the basement apartment.  It stays relatively cool down here at all times (even when the AC and power have been off for 42 hours). 

So, I called it a night, hoping, truly hoping that I would have power in the morning. 

Which I didn’t.  (7.1.12)

I did, however, have a phone with a charger, because I charged it at Cheesy’s all during the movie.  So, I at least knew what time it was when I woke up. 

Around 11 or 11:30, I was in the shower when I heard lots of clicking and I noticed a light was on.  I reached out of the shower and pushed the dimmer switch and the bathroom light turned on!  I was so excited, until the lights flickered and went off again.  For that moment, I had hope that they would flicker again and stay on, but my hope quickly died.  That flicker of hope was simply that, a flicker!

I wandered upstairs where my IF was very excited; they assumed the flicker meant that by the days end we would have power again!  However, even their hopes dimmed as we read the news (via cellular phone device) that there were still 280,000 people in Northern Virginia alone that still did not have power.  That number did not include the rest of Virginia, Southern Ohio or West Virginia.  Ugh.  That’s still a lot of people in need of power with very little hope of being on the top priority list.

Since I had not blogged in the past week, I decided I would use my laptop for as long as I could (and so far, we’ve been going for 4 ½ hours with batter life still left. Woo! Go HP long lasting battery!).  However, I am starting to run low on juice (less than an hour left). I also sapped some juice from my laptop to my phone to make sure I didn’t have to leave my phone in my car or drive anywhere too soon.  However, if my power isn’t back on within the next hour (and I’m not holding my breath) then I shall venture to GMU and utilize Cheesy’s AC and power to charge my laptop and my phone.  Can’t be without my electronics (especially since Skyra s also my alarm clock)!

And so, I have spent my afternoon blogging, and quite upset with that small flicker that gave me hope.  Oh well, eventually they will get to us.  I was very afraid that all my cold food was going to go back, but my IF has made sure that they keep the fridge and freeze stocked full of ice to keep all of our food safe! Yeah!

Well, you are now officially up-to-date (as soon as I either a. regain power or b. go to GMU and upload these).  Let’s hope this doesn’t happen again, because I’m not a huge fan of living without power.  However, I am a lot better off than many, many people in this country, and especially the world!  I mean, I’m in the DC area as a paid Intern!

An Event-full Week

6.25.12-6.29.12

So, I really should utilize my time better and work to stay up-to-date on these blog posts, but that would remove the suspense, right? 

The beginning of this week was pretty chill.  I didn’t want to spend too much money (going out adds up fast!) so I opted to be a bit of a hermit for the first part of the week.  Sunday night, despite being a great day, resulted in a sleepless night.  I had difficulty both falling and staying asleep.  That made my Monday a little rough (it is hard to get up on Mondays anyhow, so when you are extra sleepy, they are just all the worse).  In addition to being sleepy, Rush+, Metro’s attempt to make Rush hours less crowded and more efficient, was a complete failure on Monday.  To give you an idea of what Rush+ really does, it’s as my friend Garrett keeps quoting, “It is like trying to rearrange the chairs on the Titanic.” 

So, despite the fact I managed to leave my house five minutes earlier than normal (just by dumb luck), I got to work about 10 minutes later than I normally do.  Thanks to the Metro sitting in two different spots for 5-10 minutes while we waited for the train in front of us to move.  The all-knowing Metro gods have removed trains from the blue line and placed them the orange line.  The result: an extremely crowded blue line and a delayed orange line.  Oh well. 

After getting to work, I cheered up a bit.  I really enjoy working on the Policy team.  While at times I don’t feel like I’m adding a lot to the conversation, I do know that my small contribution is being used elsewhere (and, at times, my small contribution is bigger than I originally expected!).  Monday turned out to be a pretty good day.  That night, heartbroken over not being able to watch HIMYM, I ended up being productive and reading for our Tuesday session. 

After a fairly sleepless Monday I thought I would crash when I was finished with everything else.  And my body felt like it was going to, that is until I finally laid my head down to go to sleep.  For some strange reason, my mind went into overdrive and started thinking about a plethora of events and happenings from my past.  All were pleasant and positive, but I was sleepy.  Couldn’t my mind have done this in dream form?  For whatever reason, I struggled to fall asleep for the second night in a row.  Blah.

Tuesday was virtually a repeat of my Monday.  I got up, managed to leave my house early, got stuck on the Metro, and arrived at work later than I normally do (not that I was late, I just like to be early!).  Our Tuesday sessions were a little slow moving (I think it’s because I was sleepy) but our group brainstorming resulted in our project moving forward!  I was quite excited (even if my other groupmates were not) about the progress we made. 

Tuesday night was a pleasant surprise:  I found season 7 of HIMYM on an online site!  Score! However, I was sleepy, so after only a couple episodes, I decided I should probably shut it off and get some sleep.  So, I disconnected my laptop…and tried to sleep.  Key word, tried.  I am not sure why, but my mind decided that it wanted to go into overdrive around the same time my body wanted to just sleep.  I partially blame this on too many late nights at college.  Dang awkward times to be productive! (11pm-1am for those who are curious). 

Wednesday I got up late, and I didn’t care.  I was too tired to worry about 10 minutes.  Luckily, the Metro decided to actually return to its normal level of inefficiency, as opposed to the increased level of inefficiency.  Work was, as usual, entertaining.  There was some excitement in the air, as we all started talking about the healthcare ruling.  The Institute had brought in Randy Barnett to speak about the case (he represented Small Businesses in the suit against Obamacare) and things were looking pretty great. 

Until Thursday happened (after another sleepless night—this time because of excitement and anticipation). 

The Communications team sits on the 3^rd floor near the Policy team, and they have two different TVs they keep on at all time.  Well, the majority of the 3^rd floor ended up in the Com-space.  We had Fox on one TV and the SCOTUS blog on CSPAN-3 on another.  After a quick and glorious moment when we saw Fox report “Mandate struck down” we realized that the reporting was wrong.  The SCOTUS blog kept reporting, and…our office grew silent and solemn.  After about 30 minutes of watching the outcome, various individuals started to leave the room.  Some with hopes of finding the silver lining, some disgusted, and others were just shocked. 

I could write an entire blog post on how I feel about ObamaCare, but I am sure most of my readers have read plenty on the matter.  In summary, our office was horrified at the ruling. The majority of us would be working on whatever project we had on our desk, abruptly stop and just rant for a few minutes on the ruling. 

While this was a storm cloud over my day, there was a small silver-lining.  That evening I was going to attend an America’s Future Foundation event.  The event was being held on K-Street (that horrible, horrible street, or, for those of you that don’t know, the street where most Lobbyists reside) at the Microsoft headquarters.  The HQ was amazing.  The walls were lit up, everywhere; there were giant screens and just an amazing amount of technology in the room. 

We (that is, Sam, Garrett and I) mingled with a bunch of other KIP interns along with many other individuals.  The panel discussion was quite interesting, discussing the difficulties of cronyism and how business has taken a very negative turn in government involvement.  I really enjoyed it.  However, I won’t bore you with the details.

After the panel, I was quite hungry. I had not eaten since lunch. There had been appetizers at the event, but not nearly enough to fill me up.  So, the three of us wandered to find food.  After being disappointed with our selection, we settled for Cosi (and I do mean settled).  Cosi, for those who don’t know, is similar to Panera. 

The food was edible, and the conversation, as usual, was humorous.  The only logical thing to talk about, of course, was one another.  So, we insulted the heck out of one another.  It was most certainly required after the terrible day we all had had!  We chatted until I noticed that the staff at Cosi was cleaning and locking the doors.  I took this as a hint that they were closing.  So, Sam and I parted ways with Garrett (he was headed on the Red line, while Sam and I get off at the penultimate and final Metro stop on the Orange line towards Vienna) and headed home on the Metro.  Of course, Sam and I had to talk about Garrett while he wasn’t around (Only kidding)!  After a lovely chat covering a range of topics, from dress shopping to significant others, it was time for Sam to depart.  I enjoyed the rest of the Metro ride back in silence (And by silence, I mean, I listened to music) and finally made it home. 

I was worn out, so I quickly got ready for bed and opted to skip any episodes of HIMYM (it was around 11 when I finally got back and everything ready for the next day).  So, I called it a night and attempted to fall asleep.  While most nights this week I had struggled to fall asleep and stay asleep, this time I only had difficulty falling asleep.  After getting to sleep, I managed to stay that way until my alarm went off.  Thankfully!

Finally, Friday.  Friday morning I met with a couple other interns and our HR manager to discuss how we liked the program so far.  We had coffee at the Bayou (a coffee shop that was in our building) and had a very enjoyable chat.  After our little meeting, I had to return to work—meaning scroll through 6 different states newspapers and a blog to look for examples of cronyism.  This was extra depressing, since everything was talking about the SCOTUS ruling L.  However, I made it (and even found an article that was beneficial to us!) through and started on some less depressing work. 

Each month CKI/CKF has an employee brownbag luncheon where everyone gets together to just have lunch and chat with people they don’t normally see.  It was quite entertaining (especially since there was cake and pie!) and I got to have a pretty interesting discussion about the merits of Psychology and how it, while being a soft science, has led to some major benefits in the world.  I know—I’m a nerd!

As usual, I called it an early Friday—but this time not to go sightseeing.  A group of us from CKI/CKF (along with lots of other KIPers) were headed to the CATO building to hear an intern specific discussion on “10 Reasons you are probably a Libertarian.”  It was a very fascinating event (And the Cato building is huge!) with a reception afterwards.  I met a few individuals from American University who reminded me of the ultimate east-coast preparatory school boys.  They had slight English accents and were just…fun to talk to.  I enjoyed our conversation, but I couldn’t help but feel a little odd.  I am learning more and more that my grassroots, rural upbringing is not something that is common in the DC area.  At least, not among the individuals I have met.  The funniest part of the situation involving my east-coast friends:  One was from the Lexington Area of Kentucky.  I mentioned going to school in Louisville, and he 1) was surprised to hear I “knew how to say it” and 2) knew where Bellarmine was.  That makes 2 people I have met in the past 2 or three weeks.  Small world.

Upon completion of the reception (translation:  When the Cato staff kicked us out) it was time to search for real food.  Garrett, Mike, Scott (a friend of Mike’s from HIS), and I decided to try our luck at finding something to eat.  We meandered towards the Metro—with hopes of finding something or else heading in a direction where we could find something.  As we wandered and discussed various topics relating to economics and the SCOTUS ruling, we ended up passing a Thai restaurant.  Mike noticed their sandwich board had their happy hour drink specials listed on it (I’ve come to realize every intern over 21 in DC drinks to some extent, with plenty of happy hours to quench their thirst).  I had never had Thai food before, so I was game for trying something new.

The restaurant was small, but nice.  I ordered Panage Kai (I think) which is Chicken in Peanut sauce with broccoli.  It was wonderful!  Apparently Thai food utilizes peanuts well, because all four of us ordered something different (well, sort of.  Mike ordered the same thing I had, except he had Tofu in place of chicken) and each dish had something peanut related.  I was very pleased with my order.  I attempted to eat it all, but there was simply too much!  I definitely will look forward to getting Thai food more often!

(Thai and Indian places are both on my lists of places to locate once I return to Louisville).

After dinner, Garrett wanted to wander to U street, but I was worn out (my body was finally starting to give in to its lack of sleep), so I left him in the care of Mike. Scott and I both headed towards Vienna on the Orange line while our friends headed to U Street. Scott is an incredibly interesting individual, very intelligent and talkative.  I enjoyed getting to have dinner with him and hear his stories.

I finally made it back to my apartment and was ready to enjoy the AC and relax.  I also had plans to skype my friend Jena.  She is currently on the last leg of her study abroad adventure, and is in Rome.  I am incredibly jealous and was excited to hear about her adventures! 

I suppose before I continue, I should mention that the beginning of this week started out relatively nice, with highs in the lower 80s.  By Wednesday, this was old news.  We were setting record highs with humidity that made it feel like you were walking through water.  Friday was no exception. 

For those who are not familiar with weather, extreme temperatures sometimes lead to extreme storms.  Well, around 10:30, this combination occurred in Ohio, W. Virginia and Virginia.  I was relaxing in my room, getting ready to watch a couple episodes of HIMYM and kill time until I was to skype Jena at 1am, when I heard the wind start gusting, followed by some thunder and heavy rain.  I was quite happy for a split second—I love storms—until the power flickered once, twice, and then kicked off for a few seconds before flickering a third time, and going out. 

Well, living in the Midwest, I am no stranger to storms. I wandered upstairs, hearing my IF wander around looking for flashlights and lamps.  I opened the door to see a very dark sky (darker than even the night sky) and rain being blown horizontally.  Yes, the rain was actually going sideways.  It was intense.  Well, my basement was nice and cool, so I decided that I would just wander back down there and relax for a while until the storm passed and the power came back on.  I send Jena an email from my phone, a warning just in case my power was still out come our agreed upon skype time. 

And then I waited. My phone was pretty low on charge, so I plugged it into my laptop and decided to let it charge that way.  Well, whenever my laptop would hibernate, my phone would stop charging. So, I pulled up my windows media player and listened to music while my phone charged to keep my laptop from kicking out on me.

I was getting sleepy, so I decided I would take a nap before skyping Jena (I was optimistic the power would be back on. I was used to going a few hours without power after a storm).  I turned my music down low, turned by laptop so the screen’s light didn’t hit my eyes, and set my phone’s alarm so I would wake up in time to skype…and then I dozed off.

Well, I woke up when my alarm went off…and it was dark.  My microwave clock was not on and I did not hear the hum of the AC.  Dang.  Still no power.  Well, I had to settle for emailing Jena via my phone if I wanted to communicate with her, so that’s what I did for a little while, until I could barely keep my eyes open. I stayed awake long enough to see my laptop die, meaning my phone would no longer be charging.

I was optimistic that the power would kick back on during the night, so I plugged my phone into my wall charger, to ensure it charged once the power did come back on. 

Well, let’s just say I blame my naiveté on being an Intern. 

Culture Swap

6.24.12

This Sunday was a bit of a “switch-a-roo” for me.  I had made plans to take my landlord’s father to mass with me (he is very interested in all religion), but I was met with a surprise when I went upstairs:   The whole family (except for my landlord).  Turns out, the mom and sister were very interested in attending Mass as well.  They said if I would allow them to come to Mass with me, they would fix me lunch (Indian Style).  Of course, I am always more than happy to take people with me to Mass—the more the merrier! 

So, after having a quick little discussion about some things, we loaded up into my car and I headed for one church that I knew I liked (I didn’t want their first experience to be at a church I knew nothing about!).  Our Lady of Good Counsel was our target destination. 

Upon arriving at OLGC (which I love, by the way), my IF had a few questions, but really seemed to enjoy the Church.  I think my favorite question before arriving at OLGC was if they should wear shoes or not (I learned that in a Hindu temple, you do not wear shoes).  After chuckling a little bit, I reassured them that it was perfectly ok to wear shoes (in fact, probably encouraged). 

I like to get to Mass at least 15 minutes early when I am attending a new church so I have plenty of time to pray and take in my surroundings.  While I had been to OLGC before, I wanted to make sure that my IF had the full experience of the church—and they certainly were not disappointed!

After we had been sitting for a few minutes, one of the Ushers came up to us and asked us if we would be willing to bring up the gifts.  My IF looked incredibly confused, so I jumped in and mentioned that, while I was Catholic, this family was not.  Of course—and say what you will, but I see this as the embodiment of the Catholic faith—the Usher saw no problem with this, and asked all 4 of us to bring up the gifts.  I could tell that my IF was a little nervous but also very excited!  They kept questioning me about how people are picked, and why, of everyone that was there, that we were picked.  My thoughts (from my limited knowledge of seeing how this Church operates):  the Church likes to have a family bring of the gifts, and it was just God blessing them. 

Mass was a little confusing for them, and, unfortunately for them, I was not the best guide during the service.  I seldom follow along in the Missal—choosing instead to listen and pay attention to those reading the word—so I wasn’t completely sure where I could find the step-by-step instructions.  However, they managed to make it through the whole service, engaged and everything.

When we brought the gifts up, I was thrilled to see the joy on their faces.  God is very good. 

So, after Mass, they had a few questions to ask (specific roles, why they were not allowed to take communion, why they were asked to bring up the gifts, etc., etc.  very standard questions) which led to discussion the entire way back home.  The mother was just glowing with happiness.  She kept thanking me for allowing them to attend.  I felt a little awkward, and made sure to let them know they were more than welcome to attended whenever they felt like joining me! 

Upon arrival back home, I went to change, and they set to work on lunch.  I am not going to lie, I was a little concerned.  After all, I can be a…ummm…selective eater at times.  Turns out, my worries were for naught. 

We set down for lunch and I was still a little concerned. I planned on trying everything, so I did not appear to be rude.  This was a great idea on my part, because it turns out I liked everything (except some cold fruit/vegetable salad with a strange dressing/sauce mixed in). I will say this:  Indian food is not meant to look pretty.  We had naan, bean and lentil soup (I don’t know how to spell what it is actually called), chicken in a delicious orange sauce, rice with vegetables mixed in, and the aforementioned salad.  I don’t consider myself a bean’s kind of guy, but I had two and a half bowls of the soup.  Oh, and we had a “side sauce” that was green and very spicy.  I am not sure what it is called, but it was very good on naan.  My IF was amazed this was the first time I had ever had Indian food, which led to questions about what types of food I have had (Mexican? Chinese?  Thai? Etc., lol).

After a delicious lunch, I tried like no other to help clean up, but they absolutely refused to let me help, instead Jenny (spelling?) and her mother cleared the table.  After a little more discussion, I wandered back downstairs and worked on some reading, piddle around, and ended up watching Netflix.  I finally finished off the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.  I was a little disappointed, because Netflix did not have season 7 up! However, I viewed this as an opportunity to actually utilize my time in a more effective manner (ha. We will see how long that lasts!). 

Overall, it was a very good day.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to partake in my culture swap experiences, and I look forward to many more in the years to come.  Heaven knows there is so much more out there that I have not experienced.  And I am finally opening up my food horizons (shocking!) along with expanding my economic and free-market knowledge.  It is going to require quite the discovery process, but hey, I’ve got time.  That’s the joy of being an Intern!

Koch Interns, Boredom Slayers!

6.23.12

I'm getting closer! I may even be caught up by the end of the night (but don't hold your breath!)

So, most Saturdays I get up at a pretty average time--usually between 9 and 10.  Which, for me, is very average.  This Saturday the a group was headed to the Woodly (sp?) Park Zoo.  Now, zoos are fun and all, but not in 90 degree heat with roughly 200% humidity.  That being said, I was still going to probably join the venture, until I realized the East Falls and West Falls church section of the Orange line was closed:  Translation-I was going to have to drive to a station or take a bus.  Either way, the trip was going to be like an hour and 20 minutes (ugh!).

Even with that deterrent, I was still serious considering going...Until I woke up at 11 am.  After that, as I just relaxed in my bed, I decided that I would start my Saturday being lazy.  There had been talk of going to see Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, but it had yet to solidify into anything.

So I began my day in the laziest way possible.  I took forever to exit my hole in the wall before I went and decided I should probably bathe.  I took a nice long shower (just because I could) and had a light lunch.  And of course, since I was being lazy, I decided to watch HIMYM.  I'm really going to have to figure out what to do with my life once I finish off all of those episodes (which I may do tonight).

Sam and I had also discussed going to DSW to go shoe shopping (I know, I have a problem...I'm not your typical man).  It worked out and we decided to meet up around 4 before our evening plans began.  After a very fruitless search for flats for Sam, we wandered to Marshall's.  That store is...scary.  While we definitely did not find anything worth buying for Sam's feet, we managed to have a good laugh or two along the way.

I also found my new best friend: Quackie the Duck.  Quackie is a little yellow duck (I think he is actually soap).  I like Quackie.

After meandering through Marshall's for awhile, we realized it was getting close to 6pm.  We were meeting some friends at their GMU apartment so we could all cook dinner together (we deemed this a better idea than going out and spending money).  We all managed to get to GMU and find where our friends lived (After circling the campus a little bit.  Sam was following me, and Thomas gives poor directions, so it was quite the adventure!).  After waiting for the rest of our group to arrive, we headed to the store to buy our cooking supplies.

We ended up cooking two types of chicken (baked with breading and sauted/stir fry) and I made a Chocolate lush dessert.  It wasn't the best product I've ever made in the Chocolate lush department, but I think it was edible...or at least eatable! heehee.

The best part of all of this was cooking together.   A bunch of college and recent college grads cooking their little hearts out.  It ended with some very yummy results!  (However, I left my lush at Thomas and Taylor's apartment...I hope they enjoy it!)

After talking for awhile and goofing around, we finally decided to go see Abe Lincoln, Vampire Slayer! Or whatever it is actually called.  I just want to say:  Best $11 I have ever spent.
Sure, the movie had giant plot gaps, horribly inaccurate at times, no sense of time, and was pretty shallow and gory, but it was awesome!  It was one of those movies that was so bad it was awesome.  A great movie to see if you want mindless action mixed with a bit of horror and gore!

Another highlight of the night:  I learned about the Awkward Fireman pole. Muahaha.  I just can't wait to surprise one of my co-workers/fellow KIPs with it one day (ie-Emily, watch out!).  I've decided we are a pretty crazy bunch...That can debate Austrian Economics, disagree on the level of social change that is needed, laugh about historically inaccurate Abe Lincoln movies and just have a great time no matter what.  I'm looking forward to spending a wonderful summer with these people.

After the movie, it was time to head home...And I've been quite exhausted lately.  I knew that I was going to have to get up and take my IF (Indian Family) to mass with me, so I wanted to be sure I got plenty of sleep.  I didn't want my IF to think I was an incompetent intern!

Walks, Rocks, and more Rocks!

6.19.12-6.22.12

On Monday, one of our group actually joined us instead of going shopping.  However, she was flying out to Florida on Wednesday, so she needed to buy some stuff before her trip.  Well, for those that know me, you may recall I have a slight addiction when it comes to shopping.  Since I can't exactly afford to shop for myself, I was a tag along on Tuesday.

We started out at H&M (Which I had never heard of until I ended up in DC.)--which I consider to be similar to a Forever 21, only a little better quality.  After wandering around and looking for dresses and such, we headed over to TJ Maxx to look for shoes and more dresses.  Sadly, TJM had a terrible selection of shoes, but Abbie was able to find a dress or two at each place.

The worst part of shopping was the lines.  Apparently Tuesdays are very popular shopping days, because the lines were taking FOREVER!  At TJM we stood in line down stairs for an extended period of time, finally deciding to invest in some Smoked Cheddar Kettle Corn (which is delicious, by the way) until the lady announced that the register upstairs had no line.  Well, we ventured up stairs and ended up being second in line.  This wouldn't have been a problem, except the lady in front of us opened a credit card.  And the cashier didn't know how to apply the discount and was really struggling.  We finally were able to check out (and apparently TJM charges 5 cents per bag you get) and headed back to the Metro.  We parted ways and I headed home to read, clean, and I ended up watching HIMYM...I have a bit of an addiction.

Wednesday brought about a new day.  I'll be completely honest with you, I don't remember doing much.  Usually after work I'm pretty worn out and just veg-out and watch HIMYM (which probably explains why I only have 4 episodes left our of 6 seasons).

Thursday was another entertaining day of work followed by an evening of adventure.  One metro stop down was a gathering for Students for Liberty.  The happy hour, entitle Liberty on the Rocks, is a chance for individuals to network and get to know others in the liberty movement.  I decided to head out with a few friends to check it out (there are lots of happy hours around the Capitol.  I obviously can't drink, but I'm curious if this is a sign of sorts.  Lots of happy hours=lots of unhappy people?).  There ended up being a very large crowd.  I didn't actually meet anyone new, but I got to know some of my fellow KIPs better.  After hanging out for a couple of hours, I was hungry (as I frequently am after not eating for 7 hours) and managed to grab a couple of friends to wander to a local eatery.

Along with Garrett, Daniel accompanied us to dinner.  Daniel is an Orthodox Jew, so I was able to really learn a lot about the Jewish faith.  I've always had an interest in religion, and as I've gotten older, other religions fascinate me.  As a Catholic I knew a little bit about Judaism because of some similar roots, and our 8th Grade Holocaust unit also had taught me a lot, but that is nothing in comparison to learning about it first hand.  The food at the restaurant was ok, and the service was kinda poor (and coming from me, as a waiter, says something), but the conversation was impeccable!

After dinner, it was, once again, late enough to head home.  I jumped on the metro and headed in the opposite direction of everyone else (it's a common occurrence when you live in Fairfax and everyone else lives in DC, lol).

I made it back to my apartment, and was worn out.  After getting everything ready for the next day, I laid my head down on my  pillow and called it a night!

Friday brought to close the work week and the start of the weekend.  My Friday started off a little rough.  I some how managed to forget my Metro card, which isn't a huge deal.  I just had to buy a fare card.  Well, I knew I would be adventuring later in the day, so I invested in a 1-day all you can ride pass.  After trying to go through the terminal a couple of times, I had to ask the people on duty why my pass was not working.  Apparently, the all day passes don't start working until after 9:30 (I some how missed the big bold letters telling me that in my rush to not miss my train).  So, I had to buy a $4.50 farecard on top of my recent $9 purchase.  All because I forgot my silly smartcard. Blah.

But my day would get better.  :)

This week Garrett and I added an additional member to our afternoon adventures:  Sam.  First, we began by being touristy and headed to the Natural History Museum.  Well, that is after we grabbed lunch.  We were originally going to go to Rays Hell burgers, but ended up eating at this BBQ joint.  The food was really good, the waitress was friendly, and the drinking glasses were actually miniature pitchers!  They were cool.

But back to the adventure.  After lunch we went to the Natural History Museum to see Dead stuff, stuffed dead stuff, and shiny stuff! Heehee (Translation:  We saw the Dinosaurs, Mammals, geological exhibit, including the Hope diamond, and quite a few other things).  After logging a couple hours at the Museum, Sam and Garrett both needed to go shopping.  Sam needed flats and something else, Garrett, dress clothes.

So, like my Tuesday, we headed to H&M.  While I do enjoy their men's clothing section, they do not have Longs in their suit section, so everything was too short for me.  Which means I wasn't tempted to buy anything.  I helped Garrett pick out a 3 piece suit and a shirt (which looked quite snazzy, if I do say so myself!) and Sam found a cardigan (ugh.  I am morally/economically/socially/ and every other type of "ly" opposed to cardigans).

We then wandered to TJ Maxx again because I wanted to look at their suit selection (which also didn't pan out for me.  Maybe God's looking out for my budget even when I don't want too).  Sam looked at their shoes, but those still didn't produce anything worthwhile.

Lacking incentives to shop any longer, we decided to head our separate directions.  We happened to be walking through the station and realized a train was about ready to leave. Garrett encouraged us to make a mad rush to the train, so we did.  We managed to get on in plenty of time.  The catch:  Garrett needed to go the opposite direction.  After riding one stop, he quickly got off and transferred.  Sam and I stayed on chatting away, just waiting for our stops to arrive.  When the train came above ground, we noticed something was a little off.  Normally when our Orange line comes up we are surrounded by highways on both sides.  This time, it was trees.  Lots of trees.  Sam and I both looked utterly confused.  After a quick look at the Metro Map, and realizing the next stop was Arlington, we realized the train Garrett had put us on was the Blue Line...we needed the Orange.

We unloaded at Arlington, crossed the platform, and jumped onto the train back to Rosslyn, where we then switched to our appropriately colored train.  Some lady had also made the same mistake, but she was quite furious about it.  Her phone conversation on the Arlington platform was by no means friendly!

I made it back home relatively early, in comparison to the other nights this week I had been out, and decided to take it easy.  Saturday the group was going to go to the Woodly Park Zoo (which I was debating) and then cook dinner at a friends apartment at GMU (which I was excited about!).  I watched a few episodes of:  Wait for it...HIMYM and then crashed.  It had been a long week and I was one tired Intern!

The Kreme of the Crop

6.18.2012.

Alright, so I'm a wee bit behind on posting.  Let's see if I can power through this afternoon and get some blogging done!  Here we go.

So, I'm going to skip last Sunday.  In summary, I went to Mass at nice little church, but I was very "eh" about the community.  Instead of pews they had the individual chairs all lined up.  I don't care for those.  Something about being in a pew just brings the congregation together.  After mass, I came back home and bummed around...Although I did have a nice conversation about the Catholic Faith with the Hindu family I live with.

Now, on to the interesting stuff.  

After work on Monday (I really should blog more frequently, the memory is a little hazy) a group of us decided to go to DuPont Circle for dinner.  A specific individual had yet to experience DuPont, so it seemed like a good place to go.  

We met at Metro Center (which still baffles me.  DuPont has a specific Metro stop, but hey, I was just along for the ride) and decided to walk to DuPont.  Apparently it isn't very far from Metro Center...That is, if you decide to walk the appropriate direction once you leave the station.  After walking a few blocks south, we realized we should have been heading north.  Oh well, it was only like Mid-80s...the terrible heat hadn't hit us yet, so what's a few extra blocks of walking in a city like DC, right?

Upon arrival at DuPont Circle we had to wait for a few more members of our group to arrive.  To kill time, we played in the fountain that is in the center of the circle at DuPont.  There were ducks playing in the overflowing fountain, so we had to shoot some pictures off to our friend Karen who has a minor obsession with ducks!  I hope she enjoyed the pics!

When the last two ladies of our group arrived, it was time to find food.  Of course, since we all knew we were meeting to go out to dinner, none of us had any idea of where to go or what we wanted.  We picked a direction and decided to test our luck.

DuPont is like the hub of a wheel, with various streets that come out as spokes (As seen below).  I would hate to drive in traffic in this area.  

After mostly walking and talking, and rejecting a restaurant every now and again, we decided to try La Tomate:  Italian Bistro.  The prices were very average, so we wandered in--we were also all starving at this point, so we didn't really care what type of food we ate.  

Turns out it was a pretty snazzy place.  Clothe table clothes and all! (Heehee).

The food was absolutely delicious.  I ordered Tagliatelle alla Bolognese (Tagliatelle pasta w/ classic meat ragout.  And yes, for the record, I did look that up online to make sure I got it right!  Heehee. They sprinkled fresh parmesan cheese and ground pepper on our dishes if we wanted it after they brought the food out. Yum Yum!  

You would think, at a restaurant where they have wine glasses sitting at the table (they offered us drinks, but were sure to mention that they would card us.  Apparently we didn't look mature enough) that our dinner conversations would be sophisticated and intelligent.  Occasionally, it was; however, the majority of the time was spent discussing topics that would have resulted in a glare and a reprimand from our mothers.  And of course, there was one (staged) outburst of laughter specifically designed to make everyone else in the restaurant jealous that they were not at our table.

Needless to say, we are a classy group.  

After our waiter brought our checks and kindly boxed-up Emily and I's left overs--we ordered the same thing, so he marked them "him" and "her"--we decided to head out for dessert.  

When we arrived at DuPont, Emily caught sight of the Krispy Kreme shop and we decided that we would make that our dessert.  So, sticking to our guns, we headed to Krispy Kreme (see what I did with the title? heehee).  A couple squares decided they didn't want to get donuts, but I didn't care.  I ordered a dozen assorted and after sharing, claimed the leftovers as mine!  

Of course, anyone that has been to Krispy Kreme knows they always have their epic hats out for customers to take--I think they are supposed to be targeting small children.  The only logical thing to do was to get the group to all put on a hat and take a group picture.  After a small about of coercion, everyone had a hat on, and we had a group picture!  

At this point, it was getting late and the majority of us still had reading to do for our Tuesday sessions.  We deemed it time to head our separate ways.  Part of us fractured off and headed back towards DuPont and the Red Line.  The other part headed to whatever station had an Orange line.  

Emily, Sam, and I were the second group.  After walking for a minute or two, there was a group consensus that a restroom break was needed.  The local place:  The closest Subway store.  So, loaded with Krispy Kremes and left over Italian food, we stopped at the Subway across the street from us and made use of their facilities.  It was at this point that I realized the white shirt I had been wearing did not make it out of the restaurant unharmed.  

Sadly, my white shirt had been hit.  While my tie had made it out without any major incidents, my shirt had a red/orange spot on it.  It was clear the pasta had targeted my helpless shirt and left it for dead.  Luckily, I noticed it in the bathroom and was able to apply pressure and get the poor thing home!

As usual, there was a wait for the Metro.  Seldom is the train ever there when you actually want it to be.  Oh well.  As the 3 of us headed in the same direction, we chatted about various nicknames and childhood memories from our past.  Unfortunately, neither Sam nor Emily had nicknames that are overly embarrassing and would be fun to post online!  Drat!

I made it home around...well, I'm not entire sure, 9 ish maybe?  Somewhere between 9 and 10.  It was dark and I had to use my flashlight app to walk through the wooded path, but I made it home without anything notable happening.

Well, almost nothing notable.  I remembered on the walk home that I had forgotten to pay my insurance--which was due on the 11th.  After a desperate attempted to contact the agency, I realized that no place was open to process my late payment.  This little stressor reminded me of a couple of other events that just brought on more stress.  No one was available to remind me that everything was going to be ok, so I decided to sent a nice long rambling email to a friend.

By the time I had typed out the email, I was feeling much better and realized I would just call my insurance agency the next day.  12 hours was not going to be a problem--especially since I wasn't planning on driving any where any time soon.  

After reading for awhile, I decided to call it a night (the best part of riding the Metro is it provides amble time to read).  While I had somehow managed to turn an entertaining evening into an incredibly stressful night, it all worked out and I was able to start my next morning as an Optimistic Intern!

Yankees, Eclairs, and DUCK!

6/16/12

Confused by the title?  Heck, do you even actually read the title?  If not, be sure to!  Sometimes they are catchy and at others, they are hints at what is to come (ie, this post!).

Alright, so weekend 3 in DC, 2nd weekend with KIPs.  This weekend our group was a little smaller than last weekend, however, it was quite a malleable group.  Our targeted location:  Eastern Market.

Luckily for me, they had completed the weekend work on the Orange line (however, it has transitioned to the Blue and Red line).  Not so lucky for me, the Yankees had invaded.  Last weekend we had to fight through the crazy mobs of girl scouts, this weekend it was a mob of Yankees fan in town for the Nationals game.

I'll be completely honest, I would have preferred girl scouts and track work.  To start off my day I caught the Metro at my local station (a nice change, right?) and was headed towards Eastern Market--or I would have been.  Even though the track was up and running, I sat at the Vienna station for something like 14 minutes.  During those 14 minutes the train went from being empty enough for me to find a seat to full of Yankees fans.  And I mean, FULL--the fullest I have ever seen the Metro.  And I have been surrounded by girl scouts and gay pride activists.

Again, I digress (surprising, right?).  So, after sitting for nearly a quarter of an hour, the train was off.  Luckily, I wasn't the only one that was held-up, so even though I was 5+ minutes late, I was only the 3rd person to arrive.

After the majority of our group arrived (missing a few people that over slept, etc) we headed a couple streets over to the market.  It is a really neat place.  Eastern Market is a mixed of old and new.  There is a large brick building, which still houses fresh meat and such, and outside the building is surrounded by  tents of various items--jewelry, fresh fruits and veggies, paintings, other forms of art, and assorted trinkets, etc.

We started our day out by grabbing lunch at small little place (that I don't remember the name of. However, it was 210 7th street) that was featured on the food channel or something (some show that is apparently really popular).  It was really good. I had a chicken empanada with rice and delicious fries.

The group did not initially go into the brick building, but we found our way inside after navigating the market.  At the south end (I think) there was a bakery counter.  I was great and resisted the urge to buy anything--the first time.  We then met up with some new members of our group (Our dear Southern Bell overslept) and wandered around the market a little while longer.  A segment of our group split off to find some place to grab some drinks (the first place we tried was ruled out because of its prices) and we agreed to meet up a little later.  Our late comers wanted to see the market.

So, we found ourselves back in the market...and part of the group wanted to get cookies.  I was going to resist buying anything, like I had before, but then I saw the eclairs.  I eventually caved and bought an eclair (which was awesome!) and a sweet tea (I was thirsty).

We had worn out the market (you can only walk past stalls so many times without buying anything) and it was time to go meet up with the rest of the group.  We wandered around the area (which I found to be a gorgeous, but Garrett was skeptical. Apparently Georgetown is a prettier part of town. Regardless, it was quaint) and finally found the rest of the group.  Happy hour started at 4pm, so we killed time until our older members could enjoy drinks.

Killing time meant we found a really neat store with chairs outside on display.  They were a mix of hammocks and those big circle chairs with the cushions.  They were some of the most comfortable chairs I have ever relaxed in!

The group found a unique little piano bar.  Some of the group enjoyed happy hour while the rest of us chatted and got to know one another a little better.  This continued for awhile until, surprise, I got hungry.  I pitched it to the remaining members of our group (we lost a few along the way) and we headed out (loosing a couple other members who decided that Popeye's chicken sounded like a good dinner option).

Unfortunately for us, we are not quite the masters of the DC area that we like to tell ourselves we are.  We headed off walking down the street, turned onto a different one, and then ended up by the Navy Yards (or something along those lines).  Finally, we did the intelligent thing-pulled out our smart phones, stopped listening to Garrett--only kidding...partially--and figured out where the nearest metro station was.  After a bit more of a walk--and a slight detour where the majority of our group decided to talk to the Marines guarding some parking structure--we made it to the subway that would take us too...the part of town that we would find food in!  (I really should learn the names of the area, but hey, when you have a Metro app, it's irrelevant!).

We entered the Metro station, only to experience a slight delay--not in trains (surprisingly) but with a member of our group.  It was a nice day out, but the Metro stations can be a little warm right when you enter them.  Not to mention, being underground, in a "modern cave" can quickly lead to a strong sense of claustrophobia.  Some mild side affects of claustrophobia can be dizziness, nausea , and death.  Luckily, the last side affect didn't apply to a certain member of our group.  Not-so-luckily, the first two did.  The details are a little fuzzy to me (I had already jumped, errr, gone through, the turnstile [which doesn't actually turn] so I missed the actual event. Thankfully.), but a certain member--who for legal reasons shall remain nameless--got sick.

Vomit aside (or in the can maybe...) we all boarded the train and headed to--well, I wasn't entirely sure until we go there.  I just was following along, sort of.  We finally got out and made it to Chinatown (which was NOT where I thought we were going).

If you recall, I mentioned that we had been to Chinatown before.  Well, I was partially right.  We were on the outskirts of Chinatown.  This time, we actually saw the big Chinese gate that spans the road.  We "crossed the threshold" and entered the "true" Chinatown district.  By this point, we were all starving, and stopped in at the first Chinese restaurant we saw.

As we looked over the menu, a certain female member of our remaining group (we lost two more on the subway who headed to a concert) mentioned how wonderful duck was to eat.  She made sure we knew that duck was far superior to chicken in every way.  And that duck was the only thing she ordered when she ate Chinese food.  Oh, and she wanted us to know that one time she ate a whole duck because it was delicious.  And did I mention that duck apparently is really good?  Next time you go out for Chinese, you may want to try duck.  Duck is much better than chicken.  Be sure to try duck, you will LOVE duck.  Duck is just delicious.  While I didn't get duck, I did enjoy my orange chicken (which, in case you may have forgotten, is not duck).

Along with the duck--and the many jokes that accompanied the duck talk--the restaurant was one that served tea with the meal.  We had a neat little pot (which reminded Alyssa and I both of Mulan, and then led to a discussion of our favorite Disney Movies [hers is Lion King, mine...meh, I find it hard to decide]) and the small ceramic cups to drink from.  The tea didn't have much flavor--which, notes Alyssa, is why she probably liked it so much.  She really likes the taste of water.  It was a very good meal.  DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK CHICKEN.

(That last line can be omitted from reading for everyone that was not present for the meal).

After we all finished our meal of Duck and not duck, we decided to go visit some of the monuments.  This was both a good and bad idea.  Good because they are beautiful at night.  Bad because we walked, and didn't really have a game plan, and just kind of meandered.  Good because we got to know one another, bad because I was sleepy.

We originally headed toward what we THOUGHT was the Jefferson Memorial--it wasn't. While we missed our target the first time, we didn't mind.  At least, not until we all realized how full our bladders were.  Garrett and I had both used the restroom when we arrived at the Chinese place.  And then proceeded to describe the torture chamber that was straight out of a Saw movie that was the restroom.  (Ok, so it wasn't that bad, but it was a little sketch.  You had to go down a flight of stairs, follow an oddly lit hallway, and then enter into a grungy restroom.  When I went down there, there was another door right next to the restroom that looked like it led to a storage area--a concrete, cold, creepy storage area.).

I'll be honest (and maybe a little too honest for some of my readers) but I don't have a very big bladder, so I needed to find a restroom.  I asked a kindly-old-police officer (who really wasn't all that old, but was kind) where we could find the nearest restroom.  He pointed us towards the Smithsonian.  While it was closed, he mentioned they would probably let us in.  And let us in they did!

We probably looked a little suspicious.  Garrett and I had not finished our meals and were walking around with little brown bags.  Upon entering a National Museum, I'm sure we looked just a tad sketch.  Thankfully, the security guard let us in, chuckled about our "baggage" and then had a great conversation with us while we waited on the girls.

Upon leaving the museum, we found direction for the rest of the night:  the monuments.  We were bound and determined to see the Jefferson Memorial.  We headed off in the general direction, making pit stops at the Washington Monument (which, Karen and Sarah decided looked like a certain time of head gear from a specific type of organization) and the WWII memorial.  The WWII is a gorgeous memorial to see at night. It is breathtaking.  I highly recommend a visit after sundown!

The group took a short breather at the WWII memorial (we were a bit tired from walking) and then headed off towards the Jefferson Memorial.  For the record, the Jefferson Memorial is on an island.  This island is within walking distance, but not "close" walking distance.  I'd give it a "walker-friendly" score of like 6.5.  It was a bit of a trek.  A trek most of us had small regrets about once we finally reached the memorial.

Regrets aside, the Jefferson is another great memorial to see at night.  The power and prestige is but a fleeting capture of what Jefferson stood for.  There is something amazing about the standing Jefferson in his rotunda that contrasts with the sitting Lincoln in his temple.  It's amazing.

After a longer-than-intended rest break, we reached the conclusion we would catch a taxi back to the metro stop if we could find a taxi for 5 people.  We didn't.  So, the walk back began.  We were all pretty sluggish by this point--worn out from a long day of exploring.  As we got closer to the metro stop, I rejoiced at being the first person to recognize where we were at--close to the smithsonian metro right next to the USDA buildings.  Something about my first day exploring the city will always help me to remember that spot!

So, after one final random fact (I had been spouting off random facts about the monuments all day.  I'm not sure if anyone was listening or not.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to be "that dad" or "that guy" when I get older."  I guess that's the downside to always reading all the tid-bits of information they put in museums and on monument apps), we rode the escalator down for one final time that night.  Of course, the train wasn't there. Of course we had to wait, but hey, that's government transportation!

We all loaded to go the same direction, but 3 departed after only a couple stops, and then I was left alone after another couple stops.  On the upside, the train was relatively empty.  I had a short conversation with some Yankees fans and an elderly Nationals fans--I interjected into their conversation with my limited knowledge of baseball by saying "Go Cards!"  Luckily, thanks to their  wonderful World Series records-and a couple jokes about the Cubs and White Socks, I was able to appear half way baseball-literate.

Eventually even my baseball buddies left and I was left to listen to the conversations of the small number of remaining people (I would have listened to music, but my phone had basically died.  Luckily, when I made it back to Vienna, there was enough battery left for me to use my flashlight app so I didn't have to walk on the trail that runs through the woods in complete darkness).

Well, that's the gist of the story.  I thought about calling it a night a couple of times while typing this, but I promised Garrett I'd get it up before tomorrow morning and I did!  So, it's now past my bed-time (I'm an old man on Sundays, remember?) so I'm going to bring this to a close.

I'll do my best to post about my Sunday and Monday (we are going to DuPont Circle tomorrow) as soon as I get the chance. But sleep will be a priority.  Maybe not everyone is this way, but this Intern certain likes his sleep!  Goodnight!

Busy week=weary feet

6/15/12

You may have noticed that I have not posted in a few days and if you haven't, well that's ok too!  

I have not been posting daily for a couple of reasons:  1) I have been extremely busy with my internship and 2) the day to day operations, while thrilling to me, may not seem too thrilling to my readers.

That being said, I'll try to highlight all of the fun things (that are also interesting to my readers) I participated in over the past week. 

Monday and Tuesday were additional days of training for the program.  We worked on wrapping up all final aspects of business training and the mission of the organization.  It was quite entertaining.  We did some hands on training by working with group simulations.  It was quite entertaining.

Through all of our simulations, it was interesting to feel the hands on (on a small scale) application of the topics that drive our economy.

Wednesday brought direction and guidance for the summer. I finally had projects for the summer on my desk and things I needed to do on a daily basis--I wasn't just sitting at a desk.

Thursday resulted in a change of scenery after work. I went to a Leadership Institute and American Future Foundation public speaking workshop with a friend of mine.  The workshop was interesting (however, I ended up with homework. It's a two part workshop [which I didn't know] and part two involves giving a speech. Oh well).  Garrett and I found our way to CEI and enjoyed the downtown life during rush hour.

Did I mention there was free food at the event?  The food was good and the speaker was as well. The workshop was quite helpful.  The downsides:  After the workshop (it ended at 9:30-9:40 ish) I had to wait for 20 minutes for the train and the ride home took forever.  I get spoiled by only having to ride 20 minutes to work, so the hour ride home was a bit much.

Friday yielded the start of another adventure weekend.  Garrett and I were able to get off work early and head into the City to explore.  Believe it or not, it's hard to look at and enjoy museums with a large group (no offense to going out with large groups of people).

So, Garrett and I ended up at the American History Museum.  We meandered through a few exhibits and then realized we were hungry.  Neither one of us had had lunch (we skipped it to leave work early) and so we departed the museum to find food.  We ended up at an Elephant & Castle (which is a British Style pub restaurant).  The food was good and we had two waiters.  One that looked like Chum from Pawn Stars.

After dinner, we wandered the streets of DC.  We walked by the White House, the Treasury, the EPA building (I took pictures for Jena. That's her favorite government agency), and we ended up at the Old Post Office building.  It has a glass elevator you take to the 9th floor and then another one you take to the 12th (which is the top of the tower).  You can look out and see DC and Arlington, including the monuments and important buildings (and to identify them, at the top of the tower is a picture with the buildings labeled).

Riding up the elevator we met a lady from Texas.  She had a "Bergstrum,"--a picture of a goofy guy that is similar to a Flat Stanley.  After taking pictures for her, I had to have a picture of her and Bergstrum as well.  It was humorous.

When we got back to the bottom of the elevator and back in the post office, we went to a little souvenir shop that had 50% posted all over the place.  I didn't plan on buying anything, but (to quote Garrett) the people were "incredibly pushy."  While I wouldn't have paid what they were asking for any of the items, they were incredibly flexible.  I effectively bartered down every item I bought.  I fully plan on going back and buying more souvenirs.

So, upon reflecting on my posting, I realized this is a little out of order, but that's ok.  It's factual, just out of order.

That evening I made it back home (after another long metro ride that was a plethora of sudden, unplanned stops) and indulged in my guilty pleasure before skyping my friend Jena.  Sadly, skyping Jena involves a drastic time difference.  So, this time she woke up early and I stayed up late (as opposed to her staying up late and me getting up early).  After a skype conversation, it was time to call it a night.  A group of KIPs were headed to Eastern Market and no body likes a tired Intern!

Spectacular, Spectacular!

6/10/12

Today I'll be caught-up! Woohoo!  (I now understand why so many bloggers frequently get "behind," this stuff is a lot of work!).

My day today was a day of playing "catch-up."  After touring and being out until, well, bedtime last night, I had a lot I needed to accomplish today.  It was my "old-man" day, if you will (however, no offense to old men!).

I started off my day by getting up at 7:30 (I know, 7:30 ON A SUNDAY!) so I could skype with my friend Jena.  She is in Italy studying abroad, so our communications are limited and quite restricted, since she is 6 hours ahead of my time zone.  Again, as in most of my posts, I digress.  So, I woke up at 7:30 so I could shower.  You never know how long Jena and I are going to talk.  Maybe it will be 15 minutes, or maybe it will be 2 hours and 15 minutes (depends on how chatting both of us are, because if we are both in talkative moods, then you'll never get us to shut up).  After I was finished skyping Jena, I planned on heading out to Mass, so I wanted to be sure I was ready.

We had quite the conversation (as we always do) covering all sorts of topics, baiting and insulting one another, and just having an overall good time.

After my skype call, I had about 35 or so minutes to kill before I needed to head to Mass...well, I had two options: 1) Read the Science of Success or 2) Watch How I met Your Mother.  Since HIMYM happens to be roughly 22 minutes long, I figured I might as well get an episode in before Mass, and then maybe read a bit too (I didn't).

After that episode, I piddle around and did a few small things (responded to some emails, did a couple small chores, etc) and then decided to head to mass.  My target this morning:  Our Lady of Good Counsel.

It was a little farther from my apartment than St. Leo the Great, but not too bad.  I think it took me around 15 minutes to go the 4.2 miles (which I HATE...after all the traveling I've done, and living in the country, 4.2 miles should take between 4.2 minutes-7minutes, max).  OLGC was a lovely campus.  Yes, I said Campus.  They had a Chapel, the Church, a School (up to 8th grade from what I understood), and a couple other buildings.  They also have quite a few morning masses, so they must have quite the congregation.  I would say the church was between 2/3-3/4 full this morning.  Not as many people as what St Leo had, but then again, OLGC has more time for parishioners to attend. Parking was also much better here than St. Leo.

Regardless of the mundane details, let's get to the church itself.  I loved it.  It was a brick building, that sloped-up as you approached the altar.  Along with sloping, the church itself came to a point, so the Priest was sitting in a "corner" that was lit by a large skylight you were unable to see.  Hanging over the altar (since there was not a flat wall) was a large carved crucifix.  Unlike St. Leo's, this one was not painted.  It maintained the dark color of the wood.  I felt as if Christ was truly hanging on the Crucifix.  While the colors were not human, the woodwork was exceptional.  The fact it was hanging directly over the altar, and not against a wall, really made Christ tangible in the service--at least for me.

I won't lie, I was a little scared of what the music was going to be.  The choir section had roughly 8-10 people in it (it could probably hold 30+) and the majority of them were...older.  Our Cantor also was a little ill, and her voice was not nearly as powerful as it could have been--in addition to giving out at times.  However, never judge a book by it's cover--especially during mass!  I was pleasantly surprised when the entrance hymn began.  The Cantor had a lovely voice, even if she was ill, and the choir was (no offense St. Leo) superior to the one I had heard last week.  I was amazed at the power and beauty that came from those "old souls."  It was a beautiful mass.  The priest was an older gentleman, but had a beautiful message.  He used the cellphone commercial where the guy is on a date and he keeps getting updates on his phone about "the game" he is watching.  In essence, it was about the beauty of a relationship and how a table of two (Christ and oneself) really should be free of distractions.  Despite getting up at 7:30, and sleeping less than I had last week, I felt much more awake at this mass than last week.  I really enjoyed the Priest and the Church.

I'm debating between going back to OLGC or keep exploring the different churches in the area like I originally planned.  We shall see what the future holds!

After mass, I ran back home to change (I literally was limping because of my disgusting sore on the back of my ankle from my dress shoes.  Lesson to be learned: Do not break in your new shoes in DC).

After changing, it was time to go out and buy my life force (yes, I only buy it in weekly doses...It's too expensive to buy a month's supply at once for me).  I debated on trying a Safeway (the local grocery store chain), but I opted to go with the good ol' Wal-Mart.  It is a little farther from my house than a Safeway, but I was told that it was cheaper (plus:  It's a brand new Walmart and the clientele always looks waaayyy above my income level, so I consider it safe).

As I was grocery shopping I received a lot of looks from what I suspect are/were mothers.  It was that "aww-look-at-you-all-grown-up-shopping-on-your-own-without-a-mom-or-wife" look.  At least, that's what I hope it was; the alternative doesn't seem as nice "you-poor-soul-you-don't-have-a-clue."

Regardless of what was behind the looks, they always looked endearing and that's all that matters to me!

Upon returning to my apartment, I unpacked all my groceries (considerably more than I bought last week at a lower price.  However, last week I did buy a coffee pot, so that makes a difference) and decided it was lunch time (or mid-after-noon meal time, since it was close to 2:30/3:00).  I found something to eat (I have yet to cook any hot food, other than Campbell's microwavable soups and instant Velveeta Shells'n'Cheese, It's on my to-do list this week) and headed to the basement to hideout until Monday morning!

Ok, so maybe not hide out.  I simply had to blog and read some more.  I finished yesterday's entry (while watching HIMYM) and upon completing that, finished the majority of the book I have to have read for tomorrow.  (We have reading assignments each week for our program.  Along with placement, Tuesday is a group seminar day, so we are learning about advancing Economic Freedom both academically and through a hands-on approach).  I left the last chapter to read for the Metro ride in tomorrow.

Tomorrow begins a new week.  Monday and Tuesday we will finish-up our program training, and from there on out, it will be strictly business interning and KIP programming!  I'm quite excited!  Now, having finished this, I'm thinking more HIMYM (Yes, I know, I have a problem.  I believe I'm somewhere around the half-way mark of Season 3.  Yes, I've managed to watch almost 3 entire seasons in a week.  No, you cannot judge me [at least, not openely]).

And that concludes my "Old-Man" Sunday.  I foresee most of my Sundays looking like this, and I am perfectly ok with that!  After all, everyone deserves a break, even Interns!

There And, well, Still Here: An Intern Tale

6/9/12

Well, as you may or may not have noticed, I have not posted form Friday.  After careful consideration, I have deemed a blog post unnecessary for Friday.  I'll give you a quick synopsis:  I went to work, I read, I came home, I Skyped for somewhere around 2 hours, and I watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother before calling it a night.  A group of us were going to go exploring on Saturday, so I wanted to make sure I was well-rested for our adventure!

And that was my Friday, very chill, but very nice.

Now, on to the exciting stuff:  Saturday.  Now that I actually have individuals from KIP reading my blog, I guess I can't reveal my true feelings toward my fellow co-workers (only kidding, they are wonderful people!).

Our designated meeting place was the Smithsonian Metro Station by the USDA.  This was a terrible life decision on all of our parts.  While we had a rough idea of the day's agenda, we had neglected one very important aspect:  planning for the crowd.  If this had been the regular, touristy, DC crowd, this would not have been an issue.  We were fully prepared for a DC crowd.  We were not, however, prepared for the 45 million Girl Scouts that descended upon the Capitol.

I started out my trip by driving to the Court House Metro stop (again, they Metro is doing line work between East and West Falls Church, effectively cutting me off from fully and efficiently utilizing the metro) and then riding into the city.  Being a Saturday, this business-district stop was not very active.  I was quite happy with the empty train.  I had a seat, not a lot of loud individuals, it was going to be a good day.  All was calm and quite until I reached the next stop-that is when, like the locust swarming Egypt, the Girl Scouts swarmed the train.  It was madness.  My quiet, roomy car became a madhouse filled by green-and-brown sashed-and-vested girls.  And this was just the start.  Our day would be filled with long lines at turnstiles as troop leaders handed out day passes to giggling girls, crowds of loud and silly merit badges were seen no matter which direction you looked.  It was quite the experience.

Well, on to the fun stuff--unless you find girl scouts fun, then more power to you.  Not exactly my  cup'o'tea, believe it or not.

Like I was saying, to the fun stuff.  We started off the day with ideas of touring the Smithsonians.  After meeting up (we had planned on meeting up at 11, but because of all the girl scouts, etc., we ended up all finally getting together around 11:30, oh well!), we headed towards, what I like to call, Museum Row.  There was not a very rigid itinerary for the day--or more truthfully, a set itinerary at all--so the group just started wandering.  Upon arrival at the Castle (the Smithsonian Castle is the "base" of all the other museums), we diverted to one of the art galleries next to it--believing it to be under the Girl Scout's radar.  Our assumption was correct, as the art gallery was very quiet and mostly empty.

While the art was interesting, the group was a little preoccupied with getting to know one another.  Certain individuals (who will remain anonymous, *coughcoughcoughjeffcoughcoughcough*) were continually discussing life events and simply neglecting the art.  After about 30 minutes of mindless wandering--I refused to start doing any in depth reading, as I would just want to stay and read everything (do not go to a museum with me unless you really want to appreciate the history!)--the group decided that maybe it was best to meander elsewhere.

Apart from loosing 2 or 3 members of our group in an attempt to use the restroom, we made it back out to the mall safe and sound.  By this time it was after noon and a number of us started lobbying heavily for food (myself being a ranking member of this group).  After a nice little stroll through the Statue Gardens (or something like that) and a side-trip to the large water fountain, the group headed towards Chinatown.

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting when we headed to Chinatown, and maybe we just didn't get very far into the area, but I was a little disappointed.  The only difference between the Mall area and Chinatown was the Chinese Characters underneath the regular characters on restaurant signs.  Oh well.  Maybe I need to adventure to Chinatown sometime.

In China town we did what any good group of American interns would do--we ate at a chain sandwich shop, Potbelly's.  The food was good, I thoroughly enjoyed my sandwich, that's for sure.  Since our group actually picked up a member, we had to divide and conquer--that is, sit at different tables.  It was nice to just be sitting in the AC and eating, it was starting to warm up outside.

Upon the completion of our meal, it was time to wander back to the Smithsonians.  We had every intention of seeing the American History museum (since it has lots of fun things in it like the Ruby Slippers and Kermit the Frog, crucial points in American history).  We wandered through the Smithsonian Castle (which really was just a hodgepodge of miscellaneous stuff) and then headed to our next target.

The arrival at the American History Museum was as far as we got:  the line was out the door and around the corner.  It was hot, the sun was intense, and we were not going to spend our afternoon standing in that line.  We wandered down to the Natural History Museum, which, in it's defense, had a shorter line, but still a line too long for our tastes.

Group deliberation took place.  Garrett pulled out his handy-dandy map ("I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map...Thanks Emily, that's still stuck in my head) and we decided to head to the National Gallery.  If I had to guess, I would say this is where we spent the majority of our day, at least in comparison to all the other places we visited.  The gallery was awesome.

As we went through the museum we hit the Dutch and Italian artists...or at least a small portion of them.  I thoroughly enjoyed the older (1300-1600) Italian artists.  Every piece that I saw was centered around something religious.  Christ, the Saints, the Holy Family-all of it was beautiful!

In addition to the amazing pictures of Christ and his followers, there was a picture of de Vinci on display.  Apparently it was the precursor to the Mona Lisa.  I really enjoyed the art gallery.  One of these days I need to go with a small group or on my own so I can have a little more time to appreciate the art and the  museums.

After the museum, we lost a couple members and it was decided to go somewhere we could all sit down and relax.  We headed over near the Navy something Metro stop and went to a sportsbar to watch the Germany-Portugal soccer game (and whatever else was on, which included a baseball game, a basketball game, and a horse race, lol).

After about an hour or a little more of hanging out at (I wish I could remember what the name was) the sportsbar, I decided I was hungry and I wasn't feeling sportsbar food.  I was hoping for something a little more restaurant like.  (By this point, we had lost another part of our group, but we gained a couple other guys).

So, we jumped on the Metro and headed to DuPont Circle, which just happened to be a very exciting part of town.  There was a LGBTQ event going on.  It was quite the site.

After an eventful walk around the circle, yes, DuPont Circle in a circle, we stopped at the Front Page.  It is a really snazzy restaurant with old front pages of newspapers all around the restaurant.  The food was good and the conversation was incredibly interesting.  The only downside: our food took awhile because of the rally outside.  Even this couldn't dampen the atmosphere of our conversation. In fact, until the waiter came to mention that he was sorry our food was taking so long, I hadn't even realized it had been awhile.

When we finished up dinner, we lost all but 4 of us, and went to Claredon to hang out.  We were going to meet-up with some other interns, but after hanging out for awhile, and with the Metro taking so long, we finally decided to call it a night.

Since I had to drive to Court House earlier in the day, all that was left to do was run a couple of my friends back to GMU and then I called it a night.  After a long day of adventuring (which was far more detailed than what I recorded, because I'm lazy!), it was time to call it a night:  especially since I would be getting up too early for my tastes on a Sunday.

Well, there ya have it, my second Sunday as an Intern!

A Painful Policy

6/7/12

Today was the day.  The culmination of all my hard work and sacrifice.  Years of...Ok, so maybe it isn't quite that dramatic, but it was still very exciting.  Today I began the actual interning experience of the Koch Internship Program.  And, let me tell you, it was a very exciting day!

I began the day bright and early (7:05 was a tad early, so I crawled out of bed at 7:15 instead).  There was a slight downside to my morning:  I had left my coffee cup in a friend's string-bag.  So, sadly, I did not start my day with coffee. But no worries, my office has coffee.  And not just coffee, a full kitchen. Equipped with a Starbuck's coffee machine, that freshly grinds your beans before brewing them.  So, every cup of coffee is literally a fresh cup.  AMAZING!

My day was extremely fascinating, at least to me.  I started off by logging on and going through my computer and setting up all the sites and such that I would be using (ie, my electronic time-keeping site. Cha-ching!).  After going through my email (which took quite awhile), I was able to begin reading, which would take up my entire day.

I started reading on cronyism.  I started out with articles but moved onto reading a book that details how the American society has become a society of moochers.  I'm not going to lie, the readings were a little (or a lot) depressing.  I'm fearful for the American society.  The growing debt, the crazy amount of subsidies and the ever growing regulation leading to continually increasing debt is daunting, at minimum.

However, depressing statistics aside, the day was interesting.  We had a couple short meetings, one to go over, one final time, proper office procedures and the other to take a tour of the building.  There are roughly 15 interns from the program at the Institute/Foundation.  Just based off of the looks we received from the other office staff, I think this is the largest number of Interns that have been placed CKI.  I'm not going to say that for sure, but just a guess.

Along with the short meetings we had, for lunch the entire policy team met for a lunch meeting to go over the basics of the team.  They are a fascinating group.  I am really looking forward working with the group for the summer.

After I got off, I took the metro back, which was jam-packed.  I guess I had better get used to being in a can of sardines!  Oh well.  On the upside, I was able to talk with a fellow intern about our first day and just some various other topics.

The biggest downside of my day--my dress shoes have not fully been broke in.  Needless to say, I now have blisters on both of my pinky-toes and one on each of the back of my ankle/heel --whatever you call the place where the back of your shoe rubs (the right one has burst).

While this may not sound like the most exciting day, it was incredibly interesting for me.  Tomorrow will be another day in the office reading and researching, but on Saturday, a group of us are going out to explore DC.  All I can say is:  Watch out DC.  Here come the Interns!

The Greek Life-Literally

6/6/12

Today, I woke up at 7:05 am, my new wake-up call for the rest of the summer.  Welcome to the real world I guess.  After a semester of 10am and 9:25 classes--where I woke up at 9:15 and 8:40 respectively--this is just a wee bit earlier then what I would prefer.  heehee.

I am really starting to get used to riding the Metro.  It is quite the experience.  People from all walks of life ride the metro.  My stops are in fairly safe neighborhoods, which makes me feel quite safe.  However, I have not ventured out at night on the Metro.  I'm sure the first time I do, you'll hear from me!

After arriving at CKI we went over some more HR and other trainings.  We are almost done, with only next Monday left for the "training" part, and then it will just be the Tuesday Seminar days, while the rest of the week will be the actual intern work.  I'm quite excited.  I've enjoyed the days up to this point, but I am ready to really dive into my work with the Institute!

Today was a half-day.  We finished up around 12:45.  Since today we were on our own for lunch, a few of us decided to go adventuring.  We deemed Dupont Circle as our target.  We jumped on the orange line, road to Metro Center, jumped on the Red line, and before you knew it, we were at Dupont Circle.  After walking around for about a block, we decided to try a little restaurant that was in a blue-and white little building.  The architecture of Dupont is really quite neat.  The streets are narrow, winding, and confusing.  The buildings are older, build side-by-side and only a few stories high, but well maintained.  Old and new intertwined.  A historic feel in a modern society--much like the rest of DC.

I will say, the escalator coming out form the Dupont metro station was HUGE!  I'm spoiled here at Vienna/Fairfax with an above-ground station and just a short little walk down our short escalator.  But, I digress.

The little restaurant was interesting.  I think I would enjoy Greek food more if I liked vegetables more.  I'm really working on it, but it's quite the uphill battle!  I've come to the conclusion I HATE shredded lettuce.  I can stomach lettuce in leaf/salad form, but the shredded variety just is too "yuck" for me.

I tried a Greeksub burger.  I thought I'd start off simple. Didn't want to dive into anything too radical.  I kept the lettuce on, but asked for no mayo or tomato.  (One step at a time, I'll work my way up!)  The burger was interesting, not a patty so much as smaller pieces of meat that had seasoning and such rolled into them.  The bread was really good, but it was difficult to down the shredded lettuce.  Oh well!  Luckily, I wasn't all that hungry.

After we all finished our lunch, it was time to head back.  We have assigned readings for each week, with time allotted for designated reading, so that is why we were getting the afternoon off. Right at Dupont we lost one member of our group and Metro Center saw me depart the other 2 guys.  Jumping back on the Orange line gave me time to read a solid 20 pages before walking home.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I had a terrible time falling asleep/staying asleep last night.  I'm pretty sure sometime around 3 am I was jerked from my sleep by Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me, Maybe.  Since I live in the basement of a townhouse, I have the unfortunate luck of being able to hear the two floors above me, along with the noises of the next door neighbors.  I'm not entirely sure where the music was coming from--upstairs or next door--but I was unhappy with being ripped out of my slumber!  The point is, I'll be throwing in the towel early tonight--especially since I am up-to-date on these posts and have finished close to have of my reading for Monday!

I'm quite excited to begin my actual duties tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the day.  My first day as an actual intern.  My Beginning.