Air Raid

This morning at 5:15am I woke up to an alarm (Yes, Stacy and Katelyn I can wake up to an alarm, but only in emergency circumstances). Now this wasn’t just any alarm, this is the doomsday, nuc, air raid alarm going off in the whole city! Julie, the last roommate here, and I decided we needed to take action. I turned on the news expecting to find a red alert and the message, “EVACUATE THE CITY” streaming across the bottom of the screen. I flipped through about a dozen channels and found nothing…had they not known what we know now?! There is an air raid and we need to take cover!

Julie and I grabbed some blankets and sat in the hallway. I had considered sitting in the bathtub, but thought it was unnecessary at this time. My shoes and a water bottle were ready and waiting for me by the door just in case we had to make a quick escape. We hadn’t heard any bombs yet and we didn’t see any smoke…was it swine flu? Were we being quarantined?

We made some phone calls and nothing was confirmed to us. The concierge told us when he finds out he will let me know. How will he let me know? He didn’t even get my number. I called again about a half hour later…this time he said he would let us all know by way of a letter. Great, thank you kind sir for your letter regarding our lives stop I appreciate your concern for us to have to evacuate the building stop would have been nice to know a little sooner stop before the building was on fire stop. What is this, the 1800’s.

I could see people start wandering the streets in the bleak darkness to find the location the bull horn noise was coming from. I could see it all now just like in the movies…People walking about and standing on their balconies and then WHAM! We wouldn’t even know what hit us. This was my worry so we stayed in doors…ok I did go outside once, but that was to get footage and to tell my family I loved them if this was going to be it!

(the noise is so loud and so obnoxious)

To keep ourselves going we had a little peach cobbler that I made the night before, still delicious even in the wee hours of the morning.

7:15am…two hours later…Julie and I haven’t slept for hours…when is the noise going to stop…we are both drifting in and out of sleep. When all of the sudden there is complete silence…like the silence after a storm…

8:10am…late for work! My eyes are bloodshot and I can barely roll myself out of bed. Was that a dream? What happened the night before? Why did I sleep through my alarm?

It couldn’t have been a dream because Julie remembers too! Plus other people comment on it throughout the day. All I know is that UDC (University of D.C.) had their alarm go off. It was like a community alarm. What in the world…what were they doing at 5 o’clock in the morning running drills and on top of that, drills that lasted two hours!

All I can say it that I was prepared for it all and so was Julie. It was pretty lonely just the two of us last night but we survived whatever it was, an air raid, the swine flu… In the late hours of the night (some would call 5am morning) your mind comes up with all sorts of ideas. These ideas can be somewhat mixed with reality and dreams. That is what happened to me. I am just glad to be sitting at my desk typing away like it was another normal night of sleep and another normal day.

The United States Supreme Court

The interns and I went to hear a Supreme Court Case earlier this week. It was cool to see the Justices and the way they not only interacted with the Lawyers, but with each other. At one point, one of the Justices asked a question geared to slip up the lawyer and the Justice next to him gave him a punch in the arm saying, "Good One!" The case had something to do with filing taxes and a disagreement about 30 days or 60 days for the deadline. On both sides the Justices kept asking what the big deal was and why either side wounldn't bend. Was it a benefit to either of them? I guess we'll all have to wait and find out who won!

This is the famous spiral staircase

Very lovely angle.

Welcome to Washington

In front of me:
I have never been this close to the stage in my entire life. Behind me:

Can anyone tell who this is!?

Well if you couldn't tell...it was Michelle Obama! I tried to discreetly take the shot, since you aren't allowed to have cameras in theaters, but without the flash my super shaky star struck hands only produced this.

I went to an art performance called Welcome to Washington and she came too! Somehow Laurie and I were lucky and got front row center tickets to this concert. The First Lady sat about 5 rows behind us. We were pretty excited. This concert was supposed to welcome the new congress to Washington and somehow we lucked out to be able to get in. Later on in the evening Nigel introduced himself to us as we looked at his tag that said he was the British Ambassador! He had a very nice accent.

The concert was amazing. It was the best of the best in the arts. They had actors, singers, musicians and dancers perform for us throughout the evening. On the metro ride home we talked with Marsha Dubrow who was the writer for the DC Art Travel Examiner. She wrote about the night and the different performances. This is the link to her article if you would like a more in depth version of the night:

http://www.examiner.com/x-983-DC-Art-Travel-Examiner~y2009m4d21-First-Lady-Michelle-Obama-celebrates-Washingtons-firstrate-arts-scene

Rivalry of Croquet (Yes I did go back in time...)

This is a story about the mids vs. the johnny's (heard from an eligible source). On a cold winter night two men met in a bar. While boasting of ones own talents a mid (midshipmen) challenged a johnny (st. johns student) to a game, any game he thinks he can win.

[Now, I pause this story because one must understand the background between the two schools to understand the kind of challenge that was presented before him.

It is a rigorous process to attend the Naval Academy. There are a series of tests physical and intellectual that must be passed even to be considered. Their personalities are tested and references are scrutinized over. They go through much training while at the academy to become the best.

On the other side of the street rests St. John's. A school that exercises what is called Don Rag. This practice includes no testing whatsoever. They do not believe in tests. Each semester a student comes together with their tutor to be evaluated. That being said, these two schools could not be more opposites. Now back to the story.]

As the johnny pondered this, the mid sat and waited. A smirk crossed the johnny's face as he announced one word...croquet...

This is a tradition in Annapolis every year for who knows how long. Everyone dresses up in their nicest 1800's attire and comes to picnic around the croquet match. Women wear the biggest hats around while men walk by with cigars. They have wine, cheese, shrimp, and chocolate covered strawberries while they enjoy the game and each other's company.

This year the midshipmen came out in their white school sweaters while the johnny's came out as Vikings, very fitting.

The St. John's usually beat the midshipmen every year. Three years ago the navy won, but that is not the norm. This year the johnny's were so far ahead halfway through the game there was no possible way for the mids to catch up. On that cold night in a bar, the johnny couldn't have picked a better sport. He knew his odds were against him at any other physical game. Croquet was their only chance...but a chance they had and still take advantage of today.

Temple Trip

Yeah we finally got to go to the temple! It is a beautiful Temple and a perfect day for a visit.

Capitol vs. Capital

All right ladies and gentlemen the moment has finally come! And the winner is...
Drum roll please...

CAPITOL!!!

For those of you that may have voted in the other direction I feel your pain. I had much confusion on this matter as I was trying to set up CapitOl tours and working on a project that involved the capitAls of the United States.

I asked around the office and finally found my answer:
I work on Capitol Hill.
The capital of Utah is Salt Lake City.

LIZ & NICK. YEAH!

I would just like to take this paragraph and personally thank Liz and Nick for coming out to see me! You two are the best and I had so much fun while you were out here. Thanks for all the crazy travels you did to get not only here, but back home as well. Those Georgetown cupcakes must have been worth the whole trip!

Nick in a Smithsonian in a coffin...not a pretty sight.

Botanical Gardens at the Capitol are beautiful! It was like Alice in Wonderland except for that crazy queen.

The rotunda of the Capitol- we are in the very middle of D.C.

I Ball

This is call the 'I' ball which could also be called the international ball. They had perfomances that were from around the world! There was live swing band as well as a live 'more hip' band. I don't know what you would call it this more hip band, but they played songs that you would hear on the radio. It was a blast!

That's how many people were on the dance floor.

This was a palm tree made out of pineapples with fruit on top. Delicious!