DC, Here I come...

I left my apartment in Sacramento on Thursday morning after a long night involving some beer and a lot of cleaning/throwing away things in the dead of the night liek boxsprings and desks... Thursday morning came a little too early for some of us. Kelly and I spent our last morning in DC at Noah's eating bagels and drinking weak coffee. I hung out in Sac until Thursday evening, had drinks with one of my classes from Davis, and then drove home. Made it home at 3am after two hours of driving with the window down and the radio blaring.

Friday was simly spent running errands and trying to catch on sleep (still haven't caught up, I am thinking I mught just be giving up).

Cara and Joy and I spent Friday night eating dinner on the beach and then eating ice cream sandwiches in LA (we tend to do a lot of eating when we are together). They dropped me off at LAX at 10:45, and thus began my summer of adventures. Checking in for a 12:30am flight will always lead to some confusion, and of course, I am next to the woman who is checking in for a 12:30am flight that left Friday morning. Being that it is now Friday night, she is slightly late, and not happy about it. I stuck around as long as I could to see what was going to happen, but after my bags weighed in at exactly 50lbs and 48lbs, I figured I better not push my luck, and left to find my gate.

I spent some time before the flight trying not to freak out. I checked some email, set up my new ipod nano, and did some people watching. Nothing too exciting to report. I scored an exit row window seat with no one in the middle seat, so I was pretty excited about possibly getting some sleep. My hopes were almost dashed when the seven year old behind me announced she was staying up all night long. Her parents quickly put an end to that, and she was out before we hit 10,000 feet. I slept on and off during the flight, and woke up as we made our final descent into Cleveland. My connection was short, and I found myself on this tiny puddle jumper with a whole bunch of commuters flying to Reagan National Airport. My first samll plane experience (Kelly somehow convinced me I would be fine) was not too bad, until the landing, when the captain announced it was a little windy in DC. We were tossed around quite a bit, so I was thrilled to finally be on the ground.

Baggage claim was easy, considering there were maybe 20 of us on the plane. I found the Shuttle right outside the door, and then got a silent tour of downtown DC on the way to my new home. It is amazing to be driving down the highway and, oh, on your left is the Jefferson Memorial. And then, oh, here comes Pennsylvania Ave. and the White House.

The row house I am staying is really nice! It has so much character and is really comfortable. I will take some pictures once I find the camera I packed somewhere, so you can all see my new vacation home (and yours too, if you come to visit). I have my own room and a den with a futon and TV. I have met one of the roommates so far, she is very friendly. The neighborhood seems nice from what I have seen. I am about two blocks from a little shopping area (a little bit ghetto). I took a nice nap and then went down to the shopping area to find some food and a grocery store. I hit up a Subway (yup, first meal in DC, coulda had it in CA, but really, I just needed sustinance). I am pretty sure I was ordering my sandwich from behind bullet proof glass. Kinda reminded me of Oakland. After doing some more careful people watching, I decided I probably won't be returning to that Subway, and moved on to the Safeway. This Safeway is about as nice as the one in Sacramento (for those of you who don't know, this isn't saying much), but it does have the essentials, and $80, I am now good to go for the week ahead. I also am the proud owner of the newest pictures of Brad and Angelina's baby, and some sour breathe savers (Thanks Cara). I stopped by the drug store to see if they sold blankets, since I am needing to buy one, but alas, only normal drug store things. So, I brought home my groceries, and now I am sitting in my new den, thinking about whether or not I need to go back out to find that blanket.

Tomorrow is the big exploration day. I will be making my way down to downtown DC on the bus, to make sure I can actually make it to work on Monday. Hopefully there will be some exciting pictures and stories to go with it. Until then, hope everyone is happy and healthy! Feel free to call or visit...miss you all!