So much for early mornings. It was a late morning today. Something else that it was today was COLD! My sweater didn't help much against the sixty-something degree weather. Yes. You read that correctly. Sixty-something on the last day in July. It's been windy and strange lately -- not that I'm complaining! Anything beats the week where the heat index was way above a hundred with an almost matching humidity percentage.  

I had a meeting with my supervisor to go over my research, and what came out of that meeting was an understanding that it has actually  been pretty much done for weeks and I didn't realize it. Now we're on the same page! It feels good. 
 
My supervisor is the greatest. She keeps asking if there's anything I'd like to do, anything left on "my list," but I have no idea how to answer her! A huge part of my summer in DC was discovering the city I've been living in, but sometimes I wish that I had come to DC with a better idea of what the city offers in the way of history, entertainment. Even knowing where the quiet bubbles of nature would have been glorious information. 

We may go out to lunch on my last day. Someone else had mentioned going to happy hour after work, but even though DC is famous for both brunch and happy hour, I've only taken a shining to one of them. Drinking isn't something that appeals to me, especially in a city where I rely on public transportation and getting around on my own. Oh well. Sodas are served at happy hour, as well.

After work, I took my officemates home with me and I made Tex-Mex Falafel for dinner. It was amazing... once I got the hang of frying food. Every cook needs a humbling experience now and then -- mine was having an apartment full of smoke because I'm used to cooking with a couple tablespoons of oil at the most, not half an inch in the pan. Oops. 
In the end, it was a delicious marriage of two things that these Texas students enjoy!

Today I finally had my Capitol Visit ("Public Policy Dialogue") where I met with one of Diane Feinstein's (D-CA) legislative assistants. I was "late" to the meeting because they went in early and I had gone the wrong way on the street. Thankfully, there were three other students within the next fifteen minutes, so my accidental faux pas was less noticeable. 

I hadn't been looking forward to it, but it turned out to be pretty interesting. One of the things I discovered was that members of the senate don't necessarily hate each other; there's a lot of compromise and working across the aisle to get things done. Sure, everyone has pretty different ideas about how to get stuff done, but they work together until everyone is happy(/ier).

I hurried back to Special Olympics afterwards, though not without being stopped in my tracks by a huge rat. Yes. A RAT. (Those who know me know that these creatures (animated, real, wild, or domesticated) give me goosebumps and make me incredibly uncomfortable. Bad experience as a child... but that's another story. 

The professional lunch I had RSVPed to at TWC headquarters was canceled last minute, and so I changed my plans and went out to lunch with the other interns. 

Because my final was due this evening, so I left work since I had nothing pressing and went to finish that. It ended up being a typical long night, but our professor let us go after half an hour so I was able to use the evening to finish up my final case study and situational analysis. Sigh. Our class has been such an enjoyable experience that I'm sorry to see it go, although pretty happy that we won't meet next week during the frenzy of packing, cleaning, and dashing about DC like headless chickens in order to take in the sights one last time. Half of the class (maybe?) needed an early grade, so he made it so that we all received the early grade. That was a nice surprise.

I walked across the hallway to the computer lab to finish my final project, and at 9:00, I put my computer back in my bag and went to practice commencement speeches in the auditorium with the other two students. Owen, who I had met last night (we're maybe 45 minutes apart from one another in southern California... what are the chances?), and Bianca, who I can't recall ever laying eyes on. They were sweet, and another friend showed up to practice a song that's meant to end the ceremony. It was a fun evening, and we were able to give feedback to one another to help tweak the little pieces that would bring everything together beautifully.

This is making it real. My summer in DC is winding up....

This morning at work I thought that I was supposed to be presenting the research project I've been working on, but it ended up being just a short presentation of the results of several interviews I've had over the past couple of weeks. In some ways, that was a bit of a relief. There's still some work that I'd like to do on a few of the sections to make it flow a bit better. 

Taking a break, Benedicta and I stole away to share a sandwich at Capriotti's (similar to Jimmy Deans, maybe, but I like it better). I don't know what I'm going to do without her! We've become so close over the past ten weeks. Sure, we'll be in the same state... but opposite sides! Thankfully, she lives in the same city as some of my extended family, so perhaps a visit at Christmastime is in order.

Obligatory food shots:

The rest of the workday was mild and I ended up staying later off the clock to keep Benedicta company while she finished a project. 

This evening, what was meant to be a half-hour run-through of my commencement speech turned into a two-hour editing session for myself and another speaker. Then I ran to the store at 11:00PM after making a pan of rice, and wearily began to chop and saute vegetables for lunch tomorrow... then remembered that it was an Intern Lunch day tomorrow. I'm not sure if I felt more relieved that I could go to bed sooner, or irritated because I could have gone to bed an hour before. The routine of loading the dishwasher and collapsing in bed continues.

Went to work early, but I left early and worked from home during the evening, so it all evened out in the end. 

Today we had a programming event at the RAF on the governance of the internet, but I also had made an appointment to meet with the woman who advised me during the TWC admissions process. We chatted for a bit, which was nice. TWC headquarters are pretty close to my office, maybe a fifteen minute walk, so we scheduled it just before the lunch hour.

One of my wisdom teeth began to bother me today, so I fought through the stars circling my head and bought some orajel. The relief was instant -- once I made it back to the scissors at the apartment. Eek! Between that and some tylenol, the pain began to dull itself down. 

Working from home, I've come to find, can be a little dangerous! Comfortably nestled in my corner of the couch makes time pass a great deal faster than in my office chair. After I finished the goals I had to meet today, I signed off of my work computer and Skyped with a couple people. It was midnight before I knew it... evenings fly by so quickly. Phew.  

Today I did a lot of thinking about my future.... observation hours, grad school applications... and I've come to realize that there's a great deal of fear beneath my anxiety over details which are important, but not the be-all-end-all. Fear of failure. Fear of putting the rest of my life on hold. Fear of success? I don't know. I think I'm just really tired because I know that I doomsday when I'm exhausted. I sent a long email to my advisor at LCU earlier. We'll see. 

On that note, my pillow is calling my name. It'll be 7:00AM before long.

Sunday is designed for productivity! ... right? It was today, somehow. I measure productivity by the ratio of time spent out of bed to in it. Sundays tend to be nap days... my brain nearly always shuts down after lunch. 

With the understanding that there are two weeks left, I cast a wary eye at my half of the room and decided it was in my best interest to start throwing away the clutter that has accumulated over the past eight weeks. After books had been piled, papers categorized into keep or toss, and laundry folded on the bed, I set off to go to Bible study in Alexandria. It was the last Bible study that I'll be attending here, and for that reason it was a bit bittersweet evening. It was hard to say goodbye to the people that I've grown closer to Christ with over this summer, the people who I've opened up to with my thoughts and feelings. It was a quiet goodbye, similar to every other week, except that I left my email address and cell number with a few that asked for it. Quiet goodbyes are good... I might have cried if there had been a fuss. This group was so instrumental in providing a spiritual respite from the long week. 

Sundays are mundane, predictable, and generally not quite as productive as I would like them to be. They aren't my favorite day, but I find that they're crucial to my sanity. Saturdays in DC are not relaxing because of the pressure to catch up on academic projects and take advantage of the incredible city around you, all the while feeling exhausted from the worker-ant frenzy that the week demands you engage in. Sundays are my day of rest because between commuting to and from church and small group there isn't a great deal of time to do anything that requires a great deal of time, so it usually ends up with me face down in a pillow; I spent most of the summer feeling comfortably guilty (comfortable because I brought my favorite pillow with me to DC) on Sundays until I had a sudden and striking realization.
It is quite possible that the most important lesson I've learned in DC is that it's absolutely okay to be still.

Today, Benedicta, her roommate, and I rented our bikes at Union Station (thank you, Groupon!), and left to go bike the Mt. Vernon trail from Alexandria (8.9 miles). Our three companions had left earlier, deciding in some testosterone-adventure-fueled moment that they could totally make it to Mt. Vernon from the Roslyn metro station (19 miles). 

We called them silly and did our own thing-- which included going the wrong way on the metro. I had a different destination in the front of my mind, even though I knew precisely where we needed to end up. 

By the time we made it to Alexandria, it was lunch time, so we texted the guys (who had somehow just made it to Alexandria as well), and met up at Five Guys. Less hangry (hungry + angry.... just google it....), we hit the road. The first part was a great deal of fun; I took the lead to get us to the trail, looking back every so often to count heads. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... yep. All here.

It was mostly flat for the first half. There were some small hills, but mostly it was luxuriously easy. This, I realized later, was a blessing and a curse: we were able to bask in the beautiful creation around us, the scenic suburban neighborhoods, woodlands, and the Dyke Marsh, but it lulled me into a false sense of security. The steep hills came. I had worn a tank top under my LCU Rec Center shirt, which I was ever so thankful for. Despite the beautiful weather, the hills weren't easy!

The guys beat us to Mt. Vernon. By the time we finished taking a water break at Mile Marker 0 (they have a cold water fountain!) and locked up our bikes, we didn't have enough time to wander around and still get back before the deadline. We didn't want to owe a late fee to the bike rental place, so we waited by the bus stop. (Oh well, it's $18.00 to go into Mt. Vernon, so we weren't going to be seeing it anyway. Sad day!)
But our bus didn't come. And it didn't come. And it didn't come.
Finally, the missing bus and the next scheduled bus, both going the same way, showed up. This was, perhaps, a blessing in disguise. Each bus only had room for 3 bikes on the front, and we had 6. 
We split up into two groups and wearily sat down for the ride to the Huntington metro station. I don't think I'll ever complain about bus seats being hard again, because compared to my bicycle seat...

A foreign girl on the bus asked me for directions to some obscure residential street, and thanks to a map application, we found out that she was going the wrong way. Thankfully, there was a bus at the metro station she could take. I didn't catch her name, but I was reminded of the feeling of being very small and concerned about being lost in Kyiv, Ukraine, when I visited on mission trips. She spoke English quite well (certainly better than I can communicate in either Spanish or American Sign Language!), but you could tell she wasn't confident with her ability. Finally, we arrived at our station and I pointed her to where her bus was, and then the two guys that I had boarded the bus with rolled our bikes onto the waiting train. Nervously, I kept glancing at the elevator and escalators, looking for the other half of our group. Metro elevators are notorious for being extremely slow, and finally it began to move. As soon as the elevator was opening for the other three, our train doors closed and we began to move! WMATA.com (your new favorite website, DC intern!) assured us all that they would get back before 7. Sigh. 

While we were waiting at Union for the remainder of our group, my roommates texted me to cancel our evening plans, and so I ended up accepting an invitation to go out to meet my officemate's friends. By the time I found myself seated at the metro with him, I was longingly thinking of my pillow, but despite feeling exhausted from a long day in the sun I'm glad I went. His friends were extroverted and lively, which was draining, but it was an interesting experience! My friend walked me back to the metro station entrance when I decided to go home around 12:30am. Since I needed to get up around 6:30 for church, I didn't want to stay out any later. Short nights will kill you. 

My body/self-perception has changed drastically over the past month (I could go into why walking = leaner people usually, but I'd probably nerd out and recite my exercise physiology course to you... so I won't....). Today, especially, reinforced that notion because today I really realized that I don't have much padding anymore in certain places; my bike seat made sure I experienced that revelation. My quads are protesting, too.... but what an adventure we had!


I have a new, enormous appreciation for Jana's cross-country bike trip!! I was ready to wimp out before I had gone 10 miles.... she probably wouldn't bat an eyelash at 10 miles! Read about her fantastic, inspiring summer here:
http://lovesreallylongjourney.blogspot.com/

To fulfill my final requirement for my Civic Engagement Project, I found myself in the TSA screening area on Friday, July 25th behind a seven year old girl wearing an Uncle Sam costume, complete with a floppy top-hat. Although I had looked at my gate access pass for a while, she was infinitely more interesting to study. Her glittery white-and-pink sneakers were a stark contrast to the once-crisp lines of her wrinkled red, white, and blue costume. Her coattails bounced up and down as she quivered with excitement. Today, I'm certain her parents had promised her, she would see the oldest living female veteran. Lucy Coffey, at 108, was scheduled to arrive at Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C. at 3:20; her flight was delayed, but the time difference only allowed the crowd waiting to see her to grow larger. Having arrived well ahead of time, I camped out on a characteristically uncomfortable terminal bench and occupied myself with a project I had brought along. 
Every so often I would look up and survey those around me; an elderly man caught my eye in particular. It would have been hard to miss him; if you didn't notice his bright red three-piece suit, it would be even harder to miss the extravagant 24” feather in his matching red felt fedora. Women came by looking like June Cleaver, their hair perfectly coiffed into victory rolls and other period styles. Military wore their dress uniforms. Many, like me, arrived in modern day clothing.  Patriotic colors were plentiful. One man, dressed in period garb, had brought his French Horn, and entertained the waiting crowd with selections from the 1940s, anthems of the various military branches, and The Yellow Rose of Texas in honor of Ms. Coffey’s home state. 

When Ms. Coffey finally arrived, all hell seemed to break loose. What began as cheering turned into something less celebratory as security escorted a videographer down the aisle, the words between the two hardly repeatable. While some were standing on their toes to catch a glimpse of a seemingly-frail woman in a wheelchair, others formed a protective bubble around her and pushed spectators aside to maintain the aisle as scores of people crowded together to see the oldest living female veteran. 

Not too much later, I walked into Killer ESP in Alexandria to meet Abby for a latte. Sitting side by side on bar stools, we chatted quietly over her cappuccino and my toasted almond and pear and cardamom half-and-half gelato. I think all of the LCU students are ready to come home. DC has been a phenomenal experience, one that I wouldn't trade for the world, but it's time to go home. 

On another note... It's settled: my officemates and I are going to go bike riding tomorrow from Alexandria to Mt. Vernon:

The sleep schedules I kept on Monday and Tuesday have completely shifted the way my week has gone! I've been waking up before six, which has been fabulous in terms of being productive in the mornings. I've been cooking my lunches in the mornings, which may or may not be the most advisable thing, but I've been waking up early enough so it hasn't been an issue yet. 

Today was a relatively quiet one inside my little office. One officemate worked from the Library of Congress, chatting back and forth with my over our office IM after I texted her how to get on it ... and I'm not entirely certain what happened with our other officemate.

Juggling time zones is a great deal of fun when you work on the east coast and your work rests on information that you are collecting from people in the Mountain Standard Time and Central Standard Time zones! After several emails pushing for a different call time, we all finally settled on something that would work, and I was able to call Colorado and Arizona and talk with two women who were nothing less than passionate about their jobs... it was like a breath of fresh air. They couldn't tell me enough about their programs. The information they gave me was invaluable for my research report, which I am presenting on Tuesday.

Sigh. On a less happy note, something has been going on at work and I brought it up to my supervisor this morning. It was one of those situations that had escalated to something I felt I didn't know how to handle on my own anymore, which was unfortunate. I've learned to stand up for myself this summer in many different ways; while this wasn't a malicious situation, there was something going on which made me uncomfortable and couldn't be ignored any more. My supervisor was glad I brought it up, even though I had a bit of a struggle with indecisiveness because no one ever wants to get someone in trouble, but apparently this has been an issue in the past, so she scheduled a short meeting with HR. 

On a happier note, over the course of the day where my mom got to watch me work at my computer:

My twin showed up at the office while I had my mom on Skype, so we were able to say hello while I took a short break during my workday! 

The missing officemate turned up - he had been at a think tank today -- and we shared a moment. I spoke sciencey to him, and he understood me. It was fantastic. (Haha!) 
Working with two people who are pursuing Masters degrees in Public Health has been fantastic. I appreciate their minds; while I'm more geared towards anatomy and physiology, and hard sciences, one is towards law, and another ... I forget her focus ..., we all speak the same language. It's fun.

What's also fun was cooking Pad Thai with Rachel for dinner this evening!

Work has continued going well. It's been a bit slow lately, but this is the way it goes. I have phone meetings later this week, and that's when things will really pick up.

Benedicta and I took our lunch hour together out of the office today, which was a nice change of scenery. I put my lunch in the microwave and then we went to a little sandwich shop around the corner from work. She is aptly named, because she has been such a blessing in my life. It's funny how often I'm struck with the realization that I miss "girl time". I'm only ever struck with it, though, when I pull my head up from the sand that I call work. 

Our other officemate is still talking about doing the bike run this weekend. He found a Groupon for the bike rental at Union Station (ultimately, it's about $20 for a bike, bike lock, helmet, and map for an entire day).. but Roommate #1 is leaving after this weekend, so I'm waiting to hear what plans she's making for us before I buy the Groupon. The apartment will feel a bit empty after she leaves; Roommate #2 and I combined aren't as outspoken as she is!

I left work a bit later than I normally do on Wednesdays, and after a crammed trip home on a metro car with no AC, I ran upstairs and shoved leftovers in the microwave. Nothing new. Sigh. Class let out early tonight, which was a blessing. I don't think any of us were mentally there after the first half. I know my note pages are embarrassingly bare, but the students on either side of me weren't doing much better, so I let it go. 

All in all, it was a quiet evening. After coming home with groceries from Walmart, I sat quietly in my room watching a sappy Netflix romance (bad acting, cute story line) and painting my nails. This quiet time was such a blessing because I desperately needed to unwind from the week. There has been so, so, so much interaction with so many different people, and it's become a bit much- I feel so incredibly drained from it. Maybe I'll grab my laptop on Sunday afternoon and run to Ebenezer's coffee shop for a quiet afternoon of recharging. 

Sigh. Sunday feels so far away.

Introvert problems...