D.C.'d!

Noted: Washington D.C. never fails to impress. Never. Ever.

On a very whimsical 400+ dollar purchase, I decided to take the absolute first 5 days of my summer vacation / TFA time-out and spend it in the other city that I had placed as my top choice, along with Phoenix. It so happened to be that one of my very good friends, former roommate and longtime fellow pillager of livers Alex Moore was holding himself a going away party as he was graduating the likes of Georgetown U.

To start, I almost missed the flight and finally crashed the gate of my flight about 9 minutes before taking off. Literally squeezing onto it, I trekked the country airborne and made it to the final destination. It was nice seeing the capitol flying in. The most immediate act was to secure food, which eventually came in the form of a cheese steak from an Asian restaurant near the metro stop.

A welcoming crew was sent to retrieve me composed of some of my favorite I.C.er's Abie, Bevin, Jack, Ally and the ever gracious DTM. The party proved to be as disastrous as advertized with and eventual tackle - takedown from Alex, who I'm sure could only make me out by my blond hair and perpetual flannel (I seriously doubt his ability to identify fine details at this point). Regardless, I caught the shindig at the tail end and didn't get too involved in the imbibing, thought the cheesesteak and catching up with several other I.C.er's such as Big Chris, Amanda, Anna, Ram, Winski, Casey Brown and others was joyous. And watching Alex actually die after trying to tackle me again but only slamming his genitals into a railing also proved to be plenty worth the plane ticket.

The rest of the trip also proved to be solid, with all of Saturday being dedicated to Mimosas and running amock in Adam's Morgan with many of the above names. Sunday was a sad one to start, as I saw off many of the guys and was then left on my own with a backpack and suitcase in the middle of D.C. It was a cool feeling. I got ahold of my friend Bri who lives in the area and we made it over to the International Spy museam which was mega sweet. It was almost like being in the temple from "Legends of the Hidden Temple" as the first part of the place was pretty much a puzzle for every room, though our group didn’t do so well, and I'm pretty sure that our guide was very hung-over, not unlike myself (DOUBLE NEGATIVE KIDS!!!), that one is for my students, who always use them, and hope never, ever read this.

Monday was Abie day, and an Abie day is always going to be one of the most glorious days that ever be. That was the real touristy day, where we checked out the inside of the capitol, saw the national archives (the constitution up-close is a rather commanding parchment), checked out the statue garden on the mall and got ourselves some chow in Foggy bottom (tehe). *Note: As I compose this on the plane, someone is unleashing a fury of flatulence, and I sit next to the window trapped, sickened and impressed.*

Which brings us to today. Besides my consistent late starts to the day (I think I am still catching up on sleep), I was able to scramble over to the newly renovated Smithsonian for American history. It was sweet, though I was only able to view about half of it. Then, metro-ing over to VA for my last goodbye of the trip over lunch with my friend Bri, and then off to the airport, to sit near the farty guy.

Thanks to all those who were apart of the trip. It was soo needed to get some IC blood around me and I will always be grateful for those friends and the fact that I've been nonexistent in the desert for a year now, and I can still come back and rock it with some of the finest people that I have ever met, and damn proud to call my friends.

In closing, major props to two of my best friends; Amanda Butts and the Washington Metro system. Amanda was a very fine host and answered the question of "where am I sleeping" which is one that should generally be answered before embarking on a trip like this, and if the metro system were a woman, I would take it on a very nice steak dinner....I love you.

Aight homies, I have no idea what lies beyond for the summer time. With only a very few amount of obligations, the plan is to get lost park by park across this country. Pictures depend on if I get a camera and messages depend on if I get a car charger, because I am going get as far away from Phoenix as I can. Til' next time, I'll be kickin' it with the farty guy.

Andrew