As I am writing, I'm at the Baltimore airport waiting for a plane for a long trip home, after a long trip here in D.C./Maryland. It's been quite the trip, fun, exciting, exhausting. It was great, especially, to share this week with my sister. Even though I wouldn't trade this experience for anything, I hope next time we vacation together we can be more relaxed and sit around watching movies and baking cookies or something.
On Monday, the day before the inauguration, we went to Mena's office to drop off some stuff for Tuesday (like my laptop and clothes for the ball.) She didn't warn me about the winding staircase in the office, of which she knows I am terrified.
She did tip me off, however, to the unauthorized street art
Shepard Fairey had put up around the neighborhood. You might not know his name, but may recognize his iconic Obama "Hope" posters, or from The
Colbert Report last week.
Last night, Mena, Miguel and I decided to have
hamburgers for my last night in town. Miguel might be the only person I know who loves a hamburger more than I do. They were delicious.
Incidentally, today I am furloughed from work. We were told last week (the day before I left town) that we are required to take five days unpaid off work by the end of the quarter. This is an effort to not have to lay anyone off this quarter, which is appreciated, but still difficult to take a hit in the paycheck. While we are furloughed, we are banned from doing any sort of work, including checking our work e-mail. This may not seem like a hard thing, but I was originally supposed to be furloughed one day last week and just could not resist the temptation of checking e-mails and voice mails leading up to the inauguration. So today, my work phone will remain off all day.
So, I guess that is all for now. I will miss Mena and Miguel for sure, but I am really looking forward to getting home to my husband, and my own bed, with a nice, warm down comforter.
Chris had asked me whether he should go romantic (this being our first V-day as a married couple and all) or practical. I had no idea what this potential practical gift was (air filter? shampoo?), but given the hit we've taken with the wedding, HoneyBun's repairs and, now, furloughs, I thought practical would be just fine. Even though my old camera went on a suicide mission in D.C., I still was clueless as to what Chris was getting me, but I love taking pictures so much it might as well have been the romantic gift. (My work-issued point and shoot has gotten me through the last couple weeks.)I've already figured out that I can crop and resize pictures right on the camera - I can't wait to see what else it can do!
