Swimming in DC

Good morning,

Report from DC: Chaos.

I have never seen a city so turned upside down from one night of rain. It rained hard and steadily starting at about 9pm last night. On the 11 o’clock news they showed pictures of intersection I walk through everyday under three feet of water. They showed their own news building with a river coming down the stairs into their graphic design room. This morning, we have power, but that is about it. No phones, no network (well, by the time you read this, the network will have to be up, otherwise, I can’t post this). There was strong thunder and lightening until at least 2am, and this morning, while there is no rain, it is overcast and there is this strange calm over the whole city. And by calm, I mean, in the sky. Because, on the ground, chaos. Everything seemed fine on my bus ride into downtown this morning, until about F street. This is six blocks from the center, six blocks from the mall. It was then that I noticed, as we pulled over to let some people on, that we were sitting in front of a crowd of about 200, half of who wanted on to the bus I was sitting on. I had my ipod going, I was reading my book, and all of a sudden, we are packed in like sardines. BY the time we get to my stop, 8 blocks later, most people have gotten off (why do you ride the bus eight blocks? Seriously, people can we not just walk?). However, we have passed two more large masses of people. The second one is in front of the L’Enfant Metro station, which is the metro closest to my office. Apparently this station and the Archives Metro station are both flooded, which might explain the large group of people with a sudden interest in the DC buses. Luckily I caught the early bus (I finally gave in and set my alarm for 6 instead of 6:05, it really makes the difference between getting on the bus and watching the bus drive away from about 50 feet down the block). By the time I got to my stop, I was about 15 minutes behind schedule. We hit several intersections with no power and cops directing traffic (not very well, I might add). So, being late already (and late is relative because there are three of us in the office right now), I did what any normal American student/intern would do. I stopped for a non-fat, sugar-free vanilla Latte. Good thing too, because I think I would be asleep on my keyboard by now if it wasn’t for that caffeine surge. So, yes, here I sit, listening to people straggling in complaining about the trains not running and road issues. Yea, sucks to be them, I am sure it can only get worse as the rest of DC wakes up and tries to get to work.
I’m holding out to be sent home, I could use some museum time, and I down here already…I think it might happen, with the lack of computers and phones, I think people are already calling (on cell phones, I guess) to say they are not coming in. Lovely.