Last day in DC

My last full day in DC was on Tuesday. It was absolutley beautiful out...about 80 degrees.

I got off at Farragut North, which put me 2 blocks north of the White House and right in the middle of the business district in DC. I walked around for a little bit, looking for a Cosi to eat at. There were 2 places that I really wanted to eat at while I was in DC, and Cosi was one of them. There is one on every corner, it seems, much like Starbucks. I found one just when I was starting to get hungry...funny how that works sometimes :)

After I ate, I began walking south towards the monuments. The plan for the day was to read, journal, people watch, walk around, and sit in some of my favorite spots. The night before I left my journal and Bible in Jenn's car, so I had Lesley's Bible and some paper.

There is a lake that is just north of the reflecting pool (the one by the Lincoln Memorial) with grass all around it. I sat there for awhile, pondering different things. I read a little bit, and was going to journal some, but wasn't inspired to do so...the sheets of paper weren't doing it for me. I decided that I was going to walk around some.

This led me to the Lincoln Memorial. With my ipod on, I sat on the steps of the memorial, and took it all in. There is something about sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, being able to see the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol all in one view. There is so much history that the Lincoln Memorial alone holds, let alone those other places. After sitting there for awhile, I decided to continue on walking. Somehow I ended up sitting on a bench by the Potomac River, near the Jefferson Memorial. After walking by the Jefferson Memorial, I ended up sitting in front of the Washington Monument, directly facing east towards the WWII memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. The White House was my next stop, both the South and North sides. (Oh, and on my way to the North side of the White House a nice guy named Jerry tried to get me to sign up for Green Peace...beware, they are always there. The funny thing is that I am just as good a talker as he is, so he didn't get to say much, and before he got to make his point (after references to Anchor Man, made by me), I let him know I was not interested. Better luck next time Jerry.) The man who runs our country lives in that place...now it may seem trivial to you, but everytime I walk by the place I can't help but think of all that he endures everyday and then feel a deep respect for the man.

I ended up getting back on the metro at Farragut North and made my way to Dupont Circle. I went to the Starbucks, which faces the circle and is made of glass windows, so you can see everything. I sat there drinking by caramel macchiato, read some, and then people watched. After giving my feet a rest (I had worn old navy flip flops all day, thinking that I wouldn't be walking around that much...I had blisters that night), I went to a bookstore, and then headed back to Lesley's.

Tuesday night is small group night, so the girls that I had not gotten to see yet I would get to see. It was so good to be in that setting again, with those women who I love and respect deeply. I was able to catch up with those that I had not previously had a chance, and we laughed quite a bit before we began the study. Jenn, Linda, and I were on the couch...it is never a good combo when the three of us are next to each other. It felt like I had not missed a study, that I was jumping back into the normal routine.

I was staying with Jenn that night, since she was taking me to the airport the next morning. I said bye to everyone, both sad and excited, assured that the place that I was suppose to be was Cali. Jenn, Natalia, and I talked outside for about an hour and a half, mostly laughing, and discussed the lotion test again. I hadn't eaten anything, so we decided to find a place that was open. Turns out the only thing open at 10:40 at night is McDonalds. I am sure that was good for my body. :)

I got on the plane yesterday, with mixed emotions. I am glad to be home, to sleep in my own bed, to be with my friends and family again, but am sad that DC has to be so far away. Thank goodness I have friends back there who don't mind me staying with them. I am sure that I am going to be back across the country visiting before I know it.

I Love DC!

Today I was able to venture into DC. The first excitement of the day was riding on the Metro. Public transportation rocks for several reasons...1 I don't have to pay attention to where I am going, I hop on the metro and when I get to my stop, I get off, simple; 2 I can read the newspaper, my Bible, read a book, study vocab for the GRE, for about 20 or so minutes...awesome; 3 I can people watch; 4 the unselfish reason, it is good for the environment.

The next exciting thing that I was able to do is WALK. I forgot how much I love to walk. I walked to the metro, once I got off the metro, walked to find something to eat, and then walked around the National Mall and around some of the monuments. I had my ipod on and walked around...it was glorious.

I realized, with more certainty, how much I love this place. There is something so unique about it.

After strolling around for the better part of the afternoon, I headed to the Financial Services Roundtable. This is the place I did my internship at and then was hired on with. I ended up being there for about 3 hours, talking to different people and catching up. It was so good to see them and to be that office again...such a familiarity to it.

I met up with Jenn for dinner. We went to a place that I frequented often with my friend Ashley called Capitol City Brewing Co. They have a killer happy hour and give you free hot soft pretzels. Plus, they brew their own rootbeer. After dinner, we went bowling at Lucky Strikes. Our friends Linda and Phil were suppose to meet up with us, but they each had stuff come up. It didn't matter that it was only the 2 of us, there were many moments of laughter and fun. Lucky Strikes Lanes is an upscale bowling alley and lounge. It was really cool. There is one in Hollywood that my sister has gone to, so the next time I go down I am makin sure we go. Cedar Lanes has nothin on Lucky Strikes.

After we went bowling, we went into CVS. We grabbed some magazines, sat down in some chairs, and caught up on the latest celebrity gossip. It was really funny...it reminded me of a time when Ashley, Shannon, and I went to Wal Mart and sat in the furniture department and talked for hours. Before long I had to get back on the Metro to get to Grosvenor in time for Lesley to pick me up on the way home (as much as I love walking, I wasn't too keen on walking in the dark in a neighborhood I don't know that well for about 20 min).

I am going to head back into the city tomorrow. There are a few spots that I love to go sit, people watch, read, and journal. I have all day to do whatever I wish. I have a lot of thinking and praying to do about future opportunities, and figure that tomorrow is just as good a day as any to seek the Lord in what He wants for me. It will be nice to ponder such things is such a great place.

For those of you that know me, do not worry, I am coming back to California. One thing that is clear to me, at least for now, is that I am not suppose to be in DC. There are certain things that I still need to learn before thrown back into a life here in DC, things that I don't even know about.

Chillin in the DC Metro Area...

I got into Dulles Airport Friday night at 10 pm (east coast time). It was raining and muggy...which was not a good start to the trip. I was excited to see Jenn, who was waiting out on the street for me. Now, what you all need to know is that when Jenn and I get together, something always happens, and there is always a lot of laughing. It was no different this time.

Jenn called me right after I got off the plane. She let me know she was at door 3 at the departure area...and her gas light came on. Now Dulles is kind of in the middle of nowhere, so this presented an interesting obstacle. I told her there was never a dull moment and she agreed. I walked down to baggage...and as I was picking up my luggage, I received another call. A cop had told her she couldn't stay there, so she had to start moving...and she did...at 2 mph. I grabbed my bag and hustled to the street. I saw her a few doors down...literally going 2 mph, breaking every second or so. I was on the phone with her, telling her to stop moving, laughing hysterically. She finally stopped and I was able to get in the car.

The next obstacle we had to face was finding a gas station. We were on the freeway, and she took some random exit, with no gas station in sight. We drove around a little bit before I reminded her she had a GPS that would tell us where the nearest station was. We pulled out the GPS and found a gas station right before we ran out of gas. She filled up the car with gas and now it was time to get me some food.

Airlines no longer give you food on the flight. American Airlines doesn't even give you pretzels! I couldn't believe it. It was close to 11 now, but in my mind it was only 8. I grabbed her GPS and looked at food places. We decided to stop at a KFC (since they do chicken right!) which was about 2 miles away. We followed the directions the lady gave us in the machine, but what the GPS doesn't take into account is road construction. Somehow we ended up going on some random freeway, in no way the correct direction to her house. The KFC was now going to be 5 miles away, and since we were coming up on a McDonalds, I decided that was as good as anything at this point. We pulled up and could barely understand the gentlemen helping us. We decided to order a 20 piece chicken nugget (Jenn said she wasn't hungry but I convinced her to eat with me) and a large fry. With more effort than it should have taken, we took off about 10 minutes later. I was hungry and didn't want to wait to eat at her house, since she said we were about 30 min away. I gave her a chicken nugget without any sauce...mine tasted fine but apparently hers tasted like cinnamon. We got the sauce out immediately after that (good ol' sweet and sour).

We ate, we laughed, she convinced my mom to buy us John Mayer tickets for June 6th, we laughed some more, we listened to some ghetto music...it seemed like we were driving forever. Dulles is in Virginia and she lives in southern Maryland...Dunkirk to be exact. (see map for distance) Dunkirk, I soon realized, is kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I kept asking her if we were almost there, like I was a little kid on a road trip. We finally made it to her house...at 12:30.

We decided to watch a movie. I am not sure why, since we were both exhausted. In the room downstairs, they use the playstation 2 as a dvd player. We put the dvd in, put couldn't get it to start. She had a remote for the cable and a remote for the tv, but no remote for the playstation (they do make a dvd remote for the playstation). After trying many different methods, we grabbed the wireless game remotes. We were both standing in front of the tv, each with a different remote, and we began pushing all of the buttons. After about 10 seconds of this, we looked at each other and started busting up laughing. I asked her how many college graduates does it take to figure out how to work the dvd player? She said apparently more than 2. Low and behold my education at Fresno State beat out her education at the University of Maryland because I figured out how to work it. There are sensors that have to be plugged in so the wireless remotes can work...duh!

After about 15 min of the movie, Jenn was out cold. I decided to try to watch it for a little bit longer, but soon decided it was time to hit the hay.

Day 2 with Jenn consisted of more laughs before she dropped me off at Lesley's place. Once I got to Lesley's, Lesley and I had a chance to hang out and catch up on each others lives, and take my boxes to Fed Ex (I will have my stuff in Fresno next Monday April 2...yay!). I went to a fucntion at our church (Mclean Bible Church or Frontline) regarding the children in Burundi. This was put on by the International Poverty and Justice Mission chapter of Frontline. There will be a blog later about all that I learned (I know you can't wait!)

Today, I went to brunch with Lesley, Jenn, and Natalia. We had a really great time. We went to a restaurant call Eggspectations. Once again, the conversatin left all of us laughing hysterically. One such conversation consisted of Jenn telling us she doesn't put lotion on because it takes 10 minutes....who in their right mind thinks it takes 10 minutes to put lotion on their arms and legs? Lesley and I were cracking up. When Natalia came back, she agreed with Jenn on the length of time. We had Jenn show us how she would put lotion on her arms...and the way she was doing it would take way more than ten minutes. To settle how long it takes, the two of them (Jenn and Natalia) are suppose to time themsleves Monday morning to see how long it takes and then let us know. The crazy things we talk about. I promise we do have intelligent conversations...sometimes. :)

By the time brunch was over, it was nap time for me. I crashed for 2 hours, and could have slept longer but Lesley woke me up. We went to Panera so she could do some homework and I read my bible and journaled some. Before we knew it was time to go to church...Frontline.

I was so excited to be able to worship there and to hear Todd speak. Right away, everything felt right. It was so good to be back worshipping in such a familiar setting. The message was great, as always. After church, I had the chance to hang out with my friend Linda. Lesley, Linda and I went and ate at Panera. We were able to catch up on our lives...jobs, missions, trips, boys...it was so good to talk with Linda. After dinner I went with Linda to get a few more of my boxes. We hung out for a bit at her place and talked some more. Then off to Fed Ex we went (again).

I have enjoyed being back here so much. Seeing all of my friends back here and catching up has been great. I forgot how much I loved this place, the people, the church. I haven't been to Downtown DC yet. That is the plan for tomorrow and Tuesday. I am looking forward to riding the Metro (yay for public transportation), walking around, people watching at the National Mall, going into my old place of work...and just being for a few days. I love Downtown DC!

Being back here has also made me excited for what God has next in my life. I know that what comes next is in Fresno, or at least California, but after that, only God knows, and that makes me really excited.