Just Wednesday

Hmmm… I’m so behind in emails but I figured I can keep up on sharing my life though in many ways I’d rather be responding to everyone else’s….

Today was not as hectic as yesterday but I am still very tired and wanting to get to bed early since I have to leave for work around 6am.

So the day started by doing exactly what I’d been fearing I’d do for two weeks now: falling down the escalator at the metro. Sounds funnier than it felt. Actually, it’s about 250 steps, if the escalator were stopped, straight up…so deep that you can’t see the top or bottom while you’re in the middle. They’ve been covered in ice and snow which makes them slippery oc.. but I was in a hurry so I tried running down them anyway… It would happen on the day I was wearing a skirt and tights, but fortunately I only fell a few feet before I caught myself my grating my leg along the ridged steps… mangling some flesh but avoiding falling further and landing on my face. It was a rather bloody painful mess… NOT the best way to start my day. It’s still bothering me…. I can hear Laura, who is petrified of escalator, telling me that they’re scary… but the alternative of hitting the emergency stop button and climbing 250 steps is NOT attractive! Besides, other people would mob me for doing it cause THEY don’t want to climb oc… but Laura always hits the emergency stop button!
Anyways, the day got better from there! At work I continued progress on the Secretary of State memo package. My changes last night got erased, which was frustrating but oh well. I also did some research work going through State Dept archives on Latin America. It’s amazing the things you find out. For starters, without revealing classified information, lets just say that I wouldn’t be flying aerocontinente (Peruvian airline) even under its new name and the reason has nothing to do with the drug dealer who started it. I also found out a very creative way to smuggle drugs: inside squid. There’s all kind of stuff in these files… and yes, I really did find relevant info for my work as well!
After work, I ran to the NAE conference for dinner and lectures. Dinner was better than last night since last night the “bruschetta” was cream cheese in place of Mozz and canned tomoatoes…eww! Anyways, I was there in time to sit with the Asbury team so that was fun…get back into the Asbury zone/bubble for a little while and catch up. Ironically I’ve talked the most this week with Mallary, a girl I slightly knew and had classes with… girly girl, little ditzy but sweet… but this week I don’t mind shallow talks about shopping and clothes…its kind of relaxing almost! Anyway, I also talked to Holly Hatlo, who I didn’t know very well, a lot and that was nice.
The speakers were a refugee from North Korea and Mike Horowitz who is an activist for religious freedom in general and NK freedom specifically. It was very good and moving… lots of hope that a regime change will happen this year if Americans are willing to support it by refusing to economically support China while they are keeping the NK regime alive.
In other news—we got a Secretary today! Everyone was kinda relieved the waiting process for Secretary Rice’s confirmation is over. She comes in tomorrow and I will have a chance to meet her and hear her speak. I am excited.
Frustration of the day: Major newspapers including NYT found a frontpage place for Hillary Clinton’s encouragement to an abortion rights group on Tuesday. They found a backsection small place to mention that 100,000 people had marched in Washington AGAINST Abortion on the same day. Why was Hillary’s speech to a hundred people news and why are a couple hundred protesters fighting for a liberal cause ALWAYS news while 100,000 people a/g abortion ISN’T news? Ergh. I hate the media.

Quote of the day:
Somebody told me how frightening it was how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared. - Jack Handy

And my stupid sign of the day—on a mattress store I pass on the way home… says “Better sleep through science”… I know what the MEAN, but to me that conjures up the image of students sleeping through science class… doesn’t it sound like a suggestion? “Ya better sleep through science so you’re awake for math class”… somethin’ like that. =)

Earth-shaking happening of the day: John Ponce arrived! I heard the labor and delivery story from Mom tonight, but Deb you and Jess still owe me versions when you get a chance (she gets a bigger grace period…=) …. I can’t wait to see him…

Oh, and I also found out Tori (my aunt) is pregnant with twins…which is really cool cause she’s ALWAYS wanted twins and she’s also always said that it would be like God for her to get pregnant w/twins with her 6th child and this was her 6th… except now it’s 6th and 7th…and that’s really cool. Oh, just realized that’ll mean I have two sets of twin-first -cousins. That’s kinda unusual I think..esp. one on each side.

Have a good day!
Marc/marco/#2/Martha/me