How I (almost) met Congressman Udall

A few days ago work sent all us new grad nurses on a scavenger hunt in the city. They split us into teams of 7-8 people, gave us a backpack with some water, an all-day Metro card and a $5 Starbucks card and said to be back at 3:00. I'd been campaigning pretty hard to make sure there was a prize for the winner, but in the end they said that a few years back someone was running to win and tripped and ended up on workmans comp so they don't do prizes anymore. Someone always ruins it for the rest of us.

But even without any real incentive, we had a great day. I saw the Hope Diamond, the Bill of Rights/Constitution/Magna Carta, we went to the WWII Memorial and the Einstein Monument and the Washington Monument. We went to one of the House Office Buildings and made like we were going to see a Congressman, but the Georgetown magazines they'd given us to give to our Congressman were from 2005, so we just took a picture outside of Congressman Udall's office instead. It is kind of weird that you can just walk into an office like that, but also pretty cool if you really had something you wanted to talk about.

We ended up being the last team back, which we were mocked for, and then no one was at all interested in what we had accomplished which was a little irritating since we'd done so much. But in the end I couldn't really complain, I met a couple of neat girls and we had a fun day in the sun, and was paid over $200 to do it. Not too bad.

Yesterday we went down to the river and wanted to go kayacking, but the winds were blowing and the only people out were the rowers. We walked along the Watergate and the Kennedy Center to see if the water would calm down, and eventually we did see two women working their way up the river in kayacks, but they didn't seem to be having any fun at all so I guess we might have to wait until spring to try out that idea. Besides the wind yesterday was the first day its been a little chilly. Not cold, it was like 75 degrees or something, but it certainly wasn't hot.

We walked home along the Mall, past a pro-War rally. "Support our troops, these colors don't run!!" Later we went to a movie and walked past a much larger anti-war rally. "Support our troops, bring them home!" I've decided anytime someone with a bullhorn mentions the troops, it is a 95% chance that everything else they say is bullshit. I'm also super glad we went to a rally already when we were green and could just laugh at the crazy guy behind us who would heckle the speakers with things like "Have you read Bill 8784936RD7864? It clearly says that you are a baby-eater!". OK, maybe they didn't say exactly that, but it might as well been, it was so annoying. And boy do those kind of people LOVE protests! So I've had the experience, but I kinda doubt I'd ever want to go to another. I'm just not a joiner, and don't really enjoy all the "Let's simplify a complex and multi-faceted argument into a dumbed-down lowest-common-denominator chant" part. Also there is always a contest to see which side can bring the most American flags, because, obviously, the more American flags you wave, the righter you are.

However, one twenty-somethingish guy walked by wearing a simple t-shirt that said "Please don't try to sell me drugs", which I thought was super awesome and funny.

Mid-rally we saw "Dragon Wars", which is possibly the worst movie I have ever paid to see. And my expectations were low to begin with, I totally expected it to be bad, but I didn't realize the level of badness to which it would fall. Whenever people stopped talking and the "dragons" a.k.a big snakes started tearing down buildings, then it was ok. But if I made the mistake of actually listening or paying any attention whatsoever to the plot I could feel the happiness being sucked right out of my soul. And this is coming from a person who likes Chinese kung-fu movies and Godzilla movies and so is used to bad dialogue and plot "twists". But this was so bad I was left physically uncomfortable and squirming in my chair in mental anguish. Why didn't we go see Jodie Foster kick bad-guy butt instead???

Anyway, long post. We are having some more fun this afternoon, I'm all excited and nervous and a total dorkasaurus, but I'll post something later tonight.