Snowed In

Well, the promised snow of the weekend has certainly arrived! Everything in D.C. shut down around 2pm when about 8 inches had fallen and it was still coming. I attempted to get to the Library of Congress to do some research and was there just long enough to get my library card when they shut down. But at least I got my card--I'm excited to have access because I absolutely love the library. I like any library but this is the ultimate! It's also my favorite building in D.C. I think... I took a walk down the mall before heading back--I try to do that everytime I'm downtown to appreciate where I am-- and it was snowing so hard I couldn't see the Washington Monument from about 100 yards away. Oc, the white does blend in! Everything was pretty deserted... and it would have been a great site for a snowball fight but I figured that picking a fight with one of the few strangers around might have been hazardous to my h ealth. =)
I stopped at starbucks and did homework for about an hour before heading home. I tend to get more done when I'm away from an internet connex... or when my connex is down here at the house cause it's down alot! This week's assignment is on a lot of different papers which makes it harder. My prof doesn't assign huge volumes of reading, but his excerpts are very specific which can be more confusing. My textbook is largely a conglomeration of different articles, and if he assigns a couple pages out of a 20 page articles, I often have to read the entire thing to understand the 2 pages enough to answer questions on it. I've made good progress though I think...so I'm not as far behind as I feared...for this week...
Backing up in my day, while I waited for my laundry to finish so I could leave this morning (I tried a new home drycleaning product...kinda cool!=) I tried the news and ended up that I caught the end of a movie..."Message in a Bottle"... I saw the movie in the theatre when it came out...i think I was 13 or 14..i remember cause i saw it with Amber and Erica and them wanting to do anything with me was a milestone at that age...ahh, the early teen years =) Anyways, I remember when I saw it I hated it and thought it was sad... but that didn't thwart me in watching the last 30 minutes today... don't see it if you haven't. I remembered that it's about a widower and his wife dies at the beginning so I thought THAT was why its sad...I FORGOT that after finally letting go of his wife and being ready to tell the new woman in his life that he loves her, HE dies and leaves HER a widow (well, minus the marriage part...)..so it's just a big circle of tragedy and completely hopeless. Oh well, at least I got my laundry done...
The snow delayed the Asbury team's arrival...I just talked to Dr. neff and they just arrived in Baltimore... I'm sure they'll be exhausted by the time they arrive in D.C. so I'll just try and catch up with them tomorrow.
I don't think I told anybody about the most asinine (sic) security check ever. I went to go pick up my metrochex...the govnt gives all employees some coupons for the metro to supplement transportation charges to and from work... and where I needed to go in to pick them up was 4 feet from the main entrance... but they made me go around the corner, take off my coat, gloves, scarf, hat, and sweater... walk through the metal detector...set it off... get scanned, gather my stuff...get redressed, get my bag... and THEN go back to the main entrance and pick up my metrochex. It took about 10 times as long to get through security as it would have for them to just hand them to me... the actual "picking up" process was 2 secs and since I was right THERE before i went thru security it made NO sense because if I had a bomb or a gun I would have used it when I walked in the door and not after I went around the corner and thru security. I didn't go anywhere after security that I didn't go before! Anyway, it kept three guys employeed putting people thru the check... the dept of transportation has never been known for efficiency... Ergh... Then today at the library of congress, I walked in the door, to the counter, got my card ( a 4 step process...it has a picture and everything!) and walked out. Then they had to check my bag to make sure I wasn't stealing any books... HELLO, I was within eyesight of the gaurd the entire time and never even went within 500 ft of a ROOM with books...much less near an actual book! It was insane...he was even inspecting my journal to make sure it didn't belong to the library of congress. I thought about making a pithy comment about not being famous enough for my journal to be in the national library but he looked a little serious for any jokes...
While I'm rambling about inconvienances..I had the excitment of getting stuck on the metro today! I was feeling so generous I gave up my place on the first train to wait for another so everyone else in a bigger hurry could get through. then the second train broke down one stop away from home and therefore ganna's saying "be sure no good deed will go unpunished" proved true. We sat for like 20 minutes and then they made us get off and wait for the next train. I won't make THAT mistake again...it's all push and shove to get on from now on!
I don't think I have any particularly brilliant thinking moments today. I promise not all my days are this boring to read about...I hope =)
#2/marc/marco/me