He's Known for It...for What?...Douchebaggery...
Hello people!
FINALLY, RIGHT? XD Here're the blogs for during Presidential Classroom. I might not hit every tag, so if you think I forgot one and you're actually paying attention to that, LOL, lemme know. X] ENJOY!
Title: We Gotta Save All the Willies!
Entry:
Hello people!
Well, I didn’t sleep Friday night. Like, at all. I tried, but I couldn’t fall asleep. *shrugs* I wasn’t tired, anyway, so s’all good.
I spent the night catching up on TDS/TCR, which was so much fun. I should be throttled for saying this, but I usually kinda dread trying to catch up on TDS/TCR. I think it’s cuz it’s kinda ominous and slightly overwhelming. BUT ANYWHO. It was really awesome.
There were a TON of slashy moments and I’m gonna write a ficlet with them, hehe. So you have THAT to look forward to. ;D Mom, dad and I left the house at 4:30. I was gonna try to sleep in the car but I still wasn’t tired, so I just listened to music.
We stopped eventually to get some breakfast from Burger King (it took us FOREVER to find one! :\). I fell asleep shortly after that (around 8:00). When I woke up, I worked on a Jack/Tony (24) ficlet and wound up finishing it, which made me happy, lol.
We got to the hotel at 11:00. Check-in wasn’t until 2:00, so we were stuck just hanging around for a couple hours, lol. I felt really sad and kinda nauseous. The former cuz I really hate leaving my parents (or them leaving me, ya know), and the latter, I don’t even know why.
We sat around and chatted until 2:00 finally came around. Dad went with me to registration and I got my room and name badge. WELL, two things were suckish: one, they got my badge wrong. It said, “Miranda Doerfler, Nevada.” *facepalm* I still haven’t gotten the correct badge yet.
Two, there’s a new rule that parents can’t accompany their kids to their rooms. They don’t want other children to be “exposed” to other adults (that is word-for-word what they said). *shakes head* So retarded. Mom came up with me anyway cuz I couldn’t carry all my stuff and she was coming with no matter what, lol.
I said goodbye to mom and dad (gulping back tears by the second) and went back up to my room. Eventually, one of my roomies arrived. Her name’s Kasey and she’s from Georgia. She’s REALLY nice and very accepting; we talked about religion, tattoos, etc.
We went to dinner together and had time to kill afterwards, so we went back to our room. We watched some TV and she ironed some of her clothes. About an hour before we had to leave for a meeting, our other roomie arrived (super late).
It’s okay that she was late, though, cuz she’s also really nice. She’s from Puerto Rico and her name is Val. She’s kinda chatty, but not really in a bad way. And yeah, she’s totally sweet. We got dressed and headed down to our first seminar meeting thingy. It was long and boring and nothing new, lol. There are a couple of incredibly cute guys who are assistants working here. We won’t be seeing them often, unfortunately, but yeah, they’re soooooooo cute. ;]
They screwed up my caucus (the groups we’re divided into), and each of us was reassigned to a different caucus. I got Caucus One, which ROCKS cuz one of our advisor people is freakishly hot. XD And we had to get buddies, and my buddy is this totally cute guy! :D I lucked out like whoa! <3
We kinda sat in our caucus meetings for two hours doing nothing, which sucks cuz we were supposed to get out half an hour earlier than we did. But finally, at 11:00, we got out and I went up to the room. I ate some Cheez-Its cuz I was SO HUNGRY and called mom and dad to say goodnight. I really miss them. :’(
Oh, the title of this post is something someone said in our caucus. It was about saving dolphins and whales and whatnot (like Free Willy, ya know?). And this girl said, “We gotta save all the Willies!” And I kinda just burst out laughing. XD SO DIRTEH.
Teh roomies came in a few minutes later. We all snacked and then set up our shower schedule; I was last. That was fine, though, cuz mine was gonna be the longest (I wanted to shave and that usually makes me take a longer shower).
Unfortunately, I used a new razor and it cut up my legs as if they were stuffed through a fucking wood-chipper. My legs just would not stop bleeding for, like, half an hour. It sucked and now they’re super sensitive. Damn new razors.
Okay, I gotta go to bed, my roomies are sleeping and I gotta get up tomorrow.
Love y’all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
Tags: life, me, presidential classroom, parents, sleep, tds, tcr, tv, food, guys, stupid people, dirty
Mood: tired
See: hotel room
Hear: *absolutely nothing*
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Title: John McCain is So Old, He Takes an Hour and a Half to watch 60 Minutes
Entry:
Hello people!
Today kicked off to a kind of lousy start. The alarm didn’t go off and although I’ve mentioned how alarm clocks are one of the banes of my existence on here, I am used to waking up to an alarm clock, so *not* waking up to one was frustrating and suckish. My roomies and I all woke up at 7:30-ish, though, so that was good.
We each headed down at different times. I went down to breakfast and grabbed some bacon (the eggs looked okay, but the sausage looked blah). It was really good! Super greasy, but good. I got a bottle of water to bring with me, then got a caramel macchiato from the Starbucks down the hall.
Unfortunately, I only had fifteen minutes til the first meeting and couldn’t drink my whole coffee. I only got about halfway through it. I tossed it out and went to the first seminar. It was cool. It was by this guy who talked about the architecture of D.C.
It was interesting, I must admit, but slightly boring. After that, we went to get our group photo taken at Jefferson Memorial. It kinda sucked cuz it was FREEZING, but ya know. S’all good. We went back to the buses and headed to Pentagon 9/11 memorial. THAT was dull.
I mean, yeah, the memorial was interesting and very sad (which always induces thought), but we didn’t get to see the Pentagon (except the outside walls). I was bummed. I’m not really interested in memorials. They’re depressing, and you can only look at them for so long.
Then we went to Union Station. It was fun, even though I went there last year. I went to Starbucks first and got a frappucino (yes, I had a lotta coffee today), then picked up two bottled frapps for later cuz they didn’t have them at the hotel.
Then I went to the food court and found a Johnny Rocket’s. I got chicken tenders and fries and they were SO delicious. I got another order of chicken to go cuz I hate the food at the hotel and I knew the dinner would be shitty. I was right, lol. YAY CHICKEN!
THEN, I went to fye cuz they were having a huge sale and guess what?! :D I found a John Legend CD for ten bucks! WIN. I kinda just strolled around after that, stopped at the B. Dalton bookstore and went to Claire’s then it was time to go.
After that, we went back to the hotel. Our next seminar was with this dude from FOX News. I thought I’d hate it cuz, come on, FOX News. But it was great! AND, Richard Schiff was there, too! He was on West Wing and in The Lost World! :DDD
Yeah, I was STOKED about that. And it was really fun, they were hugely interactive and practically had a discussion WITH us instead of talking at us. It was seriously the best seminar EVER. Unfortunately, they didn’t stay afterwards (none of the speakers have thus far), so I couldn’t meet them or shake their hands or anything. BUMMER.
Next, we had dinner. BUT, Pepsi people were outside the seminar and I guess they’re involved in the Inauguration somehow, cuz they had hats, scarves, drawstring bags, and pins for all of us that have things like, “HOPE” and “JOY” and such on them. We all got them! :D It was awesome.
AND, there were a few people, also from Pepsi, I think, in another room doing an open letter to the President video thing. As long as you were 18 or over, you could participate! So I did! You basically said, “Dear Mr. President,” then say something you hope Obama does or focuses on during his Presidency, then say who you are and where you’re from.
I said I hope he focuses on education since I’m struggling to go to college cuz I can’t pay for it and most people in high school aren’t getting good educations. And one of the guys in the room had a sleeve of tattoos, and it was SO COOL, lol. <3
After that, I ate my dinner upstairs. It was SO good. I love that chicken. I called mom and dad and talked to them for a while, then I went downstairs for our last seminar of the day. It was also good, but not as good as the second one. It was about the Constitution and the President’s power vs. Congressional power. It was very interesting, that’s for sure! :]
We had our caucus meetings after that. We found out a few things: [1] though they were kinda promised when we signed up for this event, not all of us can get tickets for the Inauguration. There’s a section that’s up close to the stage where Obama’s getting inaugurated, see, and that section is closed off and is only for people with tickets.
We’re still going to the Inauguration, we just aren’t guaranteed to be up close. There are 60 tickets and who gets them was already decided at random by our Congressional representatives. [2] Because of the extreme security and huge amount of people coming here for the Inauguration, Secret Service says we have to choose: Inauguration or parade.
Since we’re all going to the Inauguration, we can’t go to the parade. [3] The Inaugural Ball we’re going to? It’s pretty much a lame-ass dance here at the hotel. I surrsly thought it was gonna be a legit ball around town cuz, HELLO, there are, like, 600 balls (haha). It pissed me off, I went to a lame-ass dance here LAST time.
Really, that last thing is the only thing that annoyed me. I really hoped I could meet Obama, but it’s highly unlikely to pretty much not gonna happen. *sigh* Oh, well. The caucus meeting was boring and we got out much earlier tonight than we did last night.
The roomies and I stayed up chatting for an hour, then took showers and now it’s time for bed.
Love y’all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
Tags: life, me, presidential classroom, parents, sleep, food, stupid people, angry, shopping, music, john legend
Mood: eh, moldova
See: hotel room
Hear: *absolutely nothing*
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Title: I’m Not Sposed to Use The Word “Stimulus” Anymore, I’m Not Sure Why
Entry:
Hello people!
GOD, today was a fucking long day. OMG, you have no idea how long those seminars seem when they’re consecutively one after another. *shakes head*
We got up around 6:30 this morning and had some breakfast. I got a caramel macchiato and, thankfully, didn’t have to throw it away this morning cuz we went straight to the bus. We boarded our buses and took an hour-long ride to Mount Vernon.
Mount Vernon was Washington’s estate/home. It was AMAZING. I honestly thought it would blow and be totally boring, but the house was really cool and they had two gift shops, both of which had a TON of awesome stuff.
The key to the Bastille was hung in Washington’s house. I thought that was particularly interesting, but that’s cuz I totally love the French Revolution. And in the gift shop, they had mini!Bastille key keychains, lol. THEY WERE SO AWESOME. I bought one, of course, lol.
I also got: a mug and a stuffed kitty that looked exactly like our cat, Budgie, for dad (he LOVES Budgie), a Mount Vernon cookbook and a Free Masons ornament for mom, a t-shirt for Nick and an Inauguration t-shirt for myself. We left after about an hour.
Then we came back to the hotel for lunch (they have a small food court here). There’s Subway, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. I didn’t want the two latter, so I got a pepperoni sandwich from Subway. It was SO fucking good. OMG, so delicious, lol.
We were sposed to tour the Smithsonian and all the memorials and such today, but they completely cut that from our agenda and, instead, we had a bunch of seminars. *headdesk* The first one was by a Lincoln expert, um…Dr. Ed Smith. He was pretty cool, even though I’m not interested in Lincoln very much.
Halfway through his presentation, a surprise speaker arrived: BILL MOTHERFUCKING CLINTON (BITCHES). I surrsly FLIPPED. My parents and I are BIG Bill fans (we’re kinda fans of the Clinton couple, but more Bill than Hillary, lol).
He was SO awesome. He talked to us for an hour about our futures and not being afraid to take chances and such. It really was totally great. Unfortunately, he had to leave immediately and I couldn’t shake his hand either. I’m really annoyed about that. Oh, well. The title of this post is something Bill said (as a joke, of course). X]
After he left, Dr. Smith finished his seminar. We had a brake for refreshments; the hotel provided us with coffee (it was AWFUL) and cakes/brownies/cookies. The latter were pretty good, lol, I had a piece of cake. <3 But yeah, the coffee blew.
We went back to the conference room and were treated to a hilarious performance by a comedy group known as the Capitol Steps. They were SO FUNNY. They have a website, http://www.capsteps.com, and they have a bunch of CDs available for sale. They had a few of their CDs in the lobby, so I bought one.
Finally, we had dinner. I ate the hotel dinner and guess what?! It didn’t suck! I think they somehow started making food better this year. They had ravioli and meatballs and salad and all of them were pretty good. Oh, and they had really good bread, too. :]
I stopped at the Presidential Classroom store to pick up some pins cuz I knew they had them there. I got a flag pin (only because it reminds me of TCR and, therefore, makes me laugh) and a donkey pin. SO MUCH WIN. They’re adorable.
Then we watched the video of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I think everyone’s kinda, ya know, seen it a million times, so it was a tad boring, but still. Moving. THEN, we had Inaugural prep and then our caucus meetings.
The Inauguration sounds a little scary. I mean, the HUGE amount of security is kinda frightening cuz I’ll always be afraid of doing something I’m not sposed to. *shudders* And the ridiculous amount of people is scary cuz who knows what might happen? There might be pick-pockets and criminals and yeah. Kinda scary.
Anywho, the caucus meeting was virtually pointless. We really didn’t do much of anything. Then we all headed up to take showers and go to bed. *TIRED* Gotta get up at 2:30 tomorrow, so I should get to sleep myself. Night!
Love y’all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
Tags: life, me, presidential classroom, parents, sleep, food, angry, shopping
Mood: eh, moldova
See: hotel room
Hear: *absolutely nothing*
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Title: I Wear My Socks One Pair at a Time…
Entry:
Hello people!
OH MAN. It sucks getting up at 3:00. Seriously, NEVER DO IT. *headdesk*
So, I didn’t get to sleep til 1:00. Blech. I got a few strips of bacon for breakfast cuz I couldn’t bring myself to eat a whole meal - seriously, I can’t eat breakfast at six or seven in the morning, let alone as early as three! I’m not a morning person at all and eating breakfast that early makes me very nauseous.
I woke up with heartburn, even though I didn’t really eat anything that would cause it. *shakes head* So the day started kinda sucky. We boarded the bus and I was feeling kinda down cuz, well, yeah, as I said, I’m not a morning person. I listened to some music, though, and it made me feel a lot better. <3
When we got there, they announced that most of Caucus One and Two were getting most if not all of the tickets to the ticketed section of the Inauguration viewing area/the Mall, whatever, lol. Only about six of us didn’t get tickets; I was one of them.
S’okay, really, I didn’t mind too much, I just didn’t wanna be supremely far away. We were sposed to have groups of four or six, and I was in a group of four, but two of the girls in my group had tickets. The other girl and I decided to stick together.
We were stuck with this random girl from our caucus who was, like, really annoying and wouldn’t stop yelling for us to hurry up. *facepalm* My group-mate, Krysten, was really cool and funny and made me laugh during our ridiculously long walk to the Mall.
I think we got kinda lost on the way until we ran into a HUGE group of people pretty much being hoarded down streets and through a tunnel and such to get to the Mall. We were seriously being led like cattle to the Mall.
After, oh, I think two hours of walking, we got to the Mall. It was CROWDED LIKE WHOA. Surrsly, I couldn’t even guess how many people were there. We were about halfway between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument.
We could pretty much see the nearest Jumbo-Tron, but because I’m so short, I couldn’t really see much of anything. S’okay, though, I could hear everything just fine. The pretty huge downside? It was FUCKING FREEZING.
Seriously, I couldn’t feel my toes for pretty much the entire five hours that we stood there, waiting for the Inauguration to start. *guh* When the wind blew, it was a biting cold, ya know? Like, that clean, bite of chilliness, lol?
We huddled together and Krysten hugged me every now and then to warm me up. She is seriously incredibly awesome, lol. The people who were working the Jumbo-Trons played the concert thing at the Lincoln Memorial that was on Sunday while we waited.
It was pretty cool, a TON of people were there; Steve Carell, John Legend, James Taylor, George Lopez, U2, etc. It was really awesome. And a few of the songs got our whole group REALLY pumped up (which got us a little warmer) like Shout and American Pie. It was fun, I loved singing and jumping and shit with everyone, LOL!
After those four hours of ridiculous cold, the Inauguration FINALLY started. Oh, man, it was good. Everyone booed when Bush came down (myself included) and I was so amused by it, lol. That idiot girl with us was like, “Aww, I feel bad for him.”
I said, “Why? He’s a douche, he deserves to be booed.” She said, “Yeah, but still. I still feel bad for him.” Honestly, that kinda annoyed me. Whatever, she was just blah. OMG, when Obama and that douche of a judge fumbled with the Oath, it was so, dare I say, cute! XD
Oh, but JEEZ, I HATED the invocation. I really kinda hope Rick Warren spontaneously combusts. *sigh* We left after Obama gave his speech, attempting to get a jump on getting back to Union Station, which is where our buses were waiting for us.
Well, we got lost and lots of roads were blocked cuz of the parade and we walked around for another…oh, I’d say roughly two hours before we finally made it back to the bus. I was so pissed off cuz the wind had picked up and my face literally stung.
I called mom the second we got to the hotel, which was another two hours later cuz a ton of OTHER people had gotten lost, too (the instructors basically ditched us if we didn’t have a ticket and we couldn’t find our way back).
I whined and complained to her for about half an hour about how cold I was and really, it didn’t feel worth it to me at the time. OH! And I was left on the bus, sleeping; no one bothered to wake me up and let me know we were at the hotel except the fucking bus driver.
So, after I talked to mom, I fell asleep and slept for another half hour, til 5:00. Then, I started packing my stuff, as we were sposed to. I also took a shower in prep for the dance. My roomies and I watched a little of CNN’s coverage of the parade as we packed.
Around 6:00, we all got dressed and did our hair and whatnot and headed down to the ballroom for our “banquet.” I sat with Kasey and some of her friends (I would assume from her caucus). It was pretty fun. I sat next to a super cute guy and he was really funny, too!
We had salad and chicken on a glob of mashed potatoes with veggies. The veggies were gross and I didn’t eat them, but the chicken and potatoes and salad were SO good. OH, man, they’ve got some pretty good mashed potatoes. <3
A 17-year-old beauty queen bitch was there, at a table next to ours, and she was served the same thing as us. She took one bite, then pushed the plate away. The cute guy and I joked that she prolly never eats and we totally called it that she wouldn’t eat her food.
God, what a snot she was. You could just tell by looking at her that she was incredibly full of herself. She spoke to us as our final speaker and it was annoying. I can’t believe they chose to have HER speak to us. *shakes head*
Oh, they had us do the Pledge of Allegiance, too, and I left out the “under God” part. It felt really good, lol. We were also spoken to by a senator, but I can’t remember his name for the life of me…or what state he was there for…*shrugs*
After that, we had a last-minute caucus meeting where we got certificates (lame, lol), our group photos from the Jefferson Memorial, and a cute little Inauguration pin. Oh, and I got to shake Lt. Cramer’s hand, which made me slightly squeeful. XD What can I say? I thought he was really cute!
So, then we went to the dance. I was gonna go to my room and drop off my photo and certificate, but my dumbass key wouldn’t work, so I just skipped it and decided to leave my stuff on one of the many tables in the ballroom and hope it wouldn’t get stolen.
Kasey and I pretty much stayed together the whole time, which I’m grateful for; I HATE dancing alone. We left our stuff in a pile together and went to the dance floor. They played some great music, a little Michael Jackson, some…well, some other stuff, lol.
I actually hadn’t heard half the songs, but it was still fun. And the DJ did an 80’s mix and I knew EVERY SONG he played! XD It was so awesome. <3 OMG, this creepy guy who totally looked like the Penguin from Batman was, like, stalking Kasey, so we kept trying to get away from him. It was so weird.
Oh, the title of this post is something this weirdo girl said to Kasey. We were sposed to wear multiple socks, pants, shirts, coats, etc. to keep warm during the Inauguration, ya know? So Kasey asked this girl who was hanging around her during the event, "How many pairs of socks are you wearing?" And the girl was like, "One..." and Kasey said, "Don't you have extra pairs?" and the girl said the title. *shakes head*
At about 11:00, we decided to go to bed. I thought they were gonna do room checks like they do every night, so I laid down but I left the light on and the TV on. I wound up falling asleep, but it didn’t matter cuz, for some reason, they didn’t do the room check. *shrugs*
So ends my trip. I must admit, I’m freakishly glad it’s over. I don’t wanna go to school, but I really missed home and my parents and yes, even Nick. X] AND YOU GUYS, ZOMFG!
Love y’all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
Tags: life, me, presidential classroom, parents, sleep, food, angry, dance, music, inauguration, president, guys, tv, d.c.
Mood: eh, moldova
See: hotel room
Hear: *absolutely nothing*
Love y'all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
P.S. Sorry bout the funky spacing... :}
FINALLY, RIGHT? XD Here're the blogs for during Presidential Classroom. I might not hit every tag, so if you think I forgot one and you're actually paying attention to that, LOL, lemme know. X] ENJOY!
Title: We Gotta Save All the Willies!
Entry:
Hello people!
Well, I didn’t sleep Friday night. Like, at all. I tried, but I couldn’t fall asleep. *shrugs* I wasn’t tired, anyway, so s’all good.
I spent the night catching up on TDS/TCR, which was so much fun. I should be throttled for saying this, but I usually kinda dread trying to catch up on TDS/TCR. I think it’s cuz it’s kinda ominous and slightly overwhelming. BUT ANYWHO. It was really awesome.
There were a TON of slashy moments and I’m gonna write a ficlet with them, hehe. So you have THAT to look forward to. ;D Mom, dad and I left the house at 4:30. I was gonna try to sleep in the car but I still wasn’t tired, so I just listened to music.
We stopped eventually to get some breakfast from Burger King (it took us FOREVER to find one! :\). I fell asleep shortly after that (around 8:00). When I woke up, I worked on a Jack/Tony (24) ficlet and wound up finishing it, which made me happy, lol.
We got to the hotel at 11:00. Check-in wasn’t until 2:00, so we were stuck just hanging around for a couple hours, lol. I felt really sad and kinda nauseous. The former cuz I really hate leaving my parents (or them leaving me, ya know), and the latter, I don’t even know why.
We sat around and chatted until 2:00 finally came around. Dad went with me to registration and I got my room and name badge. WELL, two things were suckish: one, they got my badge wrong. It said, “Miranda Doerfler, Nevada.” *facepalm* I still haven’t gotten the correct badge yet.
Two, there’s a new rule that parents can’t accompany their kids to their rooms. They don’t want other children to be “exposed” to other adults (that is word-for-word what they said). *shakes head* So retarded. Mom came up with me anyway cuz I couldn’t carry all my stuff and she was coming with no matter what, lol.
I said goodbye to mom and dad (gulping back tears by the second) and went back up to my room. Eventually, one of my roomies arrived. Her name’s Kasey and she’s from Georgia. She’s REALLY nice and very accepting; we talked about religion, tattoos, etc.
We went to dinner together and had time to kill afterwards, so we went back to our room. We watched some TV and she ironed some of her clothes. About an hour before we had to leave for a meeting, our other roomie arrived (super late).
It’s okay that she was late, though, cuz she’s also really nice. She’s from Puerto Rico and her name is Val. She’s kinda chatty, but not really in a bad way. And yeah, she’s totally sweet. We got dressed and headed down to our first seminar meeting thingy. It was long and boring and nothing new, lol. There are a couple of incredibly cute guys who are assistants working here. We won’t be seeing them often, unfortunately, but yeah, they’re soooooooo cute. ;]
They screwed up my caucus (the groups we’re divided into), and each of us was reassigned to a different caucus. I got Caucus One, which ROCKS cuz one of our advisor people is freakishly hot. XD And we had to get buddies, and my buddy is this totally cute guy! :D I lucked out like whoa! <3
We kinda sat in our caucus meetings for two hours doing nothing, which sucks cuz we were supposed to get out half an hour earlier than we did. But finally, at 11:00, we got out and I went up to the room. I ate some Cheez-Its cuz I was SO HUNGRY and called mom and dad to say goodnight. I really miss them. :’(
Oh, the title of this post is something someone said in our caucus. It was about saving dolphins and whales and whatnot (like Free Willy, ya know?). And this girl said, “We gotta save all the Willies!” And I kinda just burst out laughing. XD SO DIRTEH.
Teh roomies came in a few minutes later. We all snacked and then set up our shower schedule; I was last. That was fine, though, cuz mine was gonna be the longest (I wanted to shave and that usually makes me take a longer shower).
Unfortunately, I used a new razor and it cut up my legs as if they were stuffed through a fucking wood-chipper. My legs just would not stop bleeding for, like, half an hour. It sucked and now they’re super sensitive. Damn new razors.
Okay, I gotta go to bed, my roomies are sleeping and I gotta get up tomorrow.
Love y’all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
Tags: life, me, presidential classroom, parents, sleep, tds, tcr, tv, food, guys, stupid people, dirty
Mood: tired
See: hotel room
Hear: *absolutely nothing*
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Title: John McCain is So Old, He Takes an Hour and a Half to watch 60 Minutes
Entry:
Hello people!
Today kicked off to a kind of lousy start. The alarm didn’t go off and although I’ve mentioned how alarm clocks are one of the banes of my existence on here, I am used to waking up to an alarm clock, so *not* waking up to one was frustrating and suckish. My roomies and I all woke up at 7:30-ish, though, so that was good.
We each headed down at different times. I went down to breakfast and grabbed some bacon (the eggs looked okay, but the sausage looked blah). It was really good! Super greasy, but good. I got a bottle of water to bring with me, then got a caramel macchiato from the Starbucks down the hall.
Unfortunately, I only had fifteen minutes til the first meeting and couldn’t drink my whole coffee. I only got about halfway through it. I tossed it out and went to the first seminar. It was cool. It was by this guy who talked about the architecture of D.C.
It was interesting, I must admit, but slightly boring. After that, we went to get our group photo taken at Jefferson Memorial. It kinda sucked cuz it was FREEZING, but ya know. S’all good. We went back to the buses and headed to Pentagon 9/11 memorial. THAT was dull.
I mean, yeah, the memorial was interesting and very sad (which always induces thought), but we didn’t get to see the Pentagon (except the outside walls). I was bummed. I’m not really interested in memorials. They’re depressing, and you can only look at them for so long.
Then we went to Union Station. It was fun, even though I went there last year. I went to Starbucks first and got a frappucino (yes, I had a lotta coffee today), then picked up two bottled frapps for later cuz they didn’t have them at the hotel.
Then I went to the food court and found a Johnny Rocket’s. I got chicken tenders and fries and they were SO delicious. I got another order of chicken to go cuz I hate the food at the hotel and I knew the dinner would be shitty. I was right, lol. YAY CHICKEN!
THEN, I went to fye cuz they were having a huge sale and guess what?! :D I found a John Legend CD for ten bucks! WIN. I kinda just strolled around after that, stopped at the B. Dalton bookstore and went to Claire’s then it was time to go.
After that, we went back to the hotel. Our next seminar was with this dude from FOX News. I thought I’d hate it cuz, come on, FOX News. But it was great! AND, Richard Schiff was there, too! He was on West Wing and in The Lost World! :DDD
Yeah, I was STOKED about that. And it was really fun, they were hugely interactive and practically had a discussion WITH us instead of talking at us. It was seriously the best seminar EVER. Unfortunately, they didn’t stay afterwards (none of the speakers have thus far), so I couldn’t meet them or shake their hands or anything. BUMMER.
Next, we had dinner. BUT, Pepsi people were outside the seminar and I guess they’re involved in the Inauguration somehow, cuz they had hats, scarves, drawstring bags, and pins for all of us that have things like, “HOPE” and “JOY” and such on them. We all got them! :D It was awesome.
AND, there were a few people, also from Pepsi, I think, in another room doing an open letter to the President video thing. As long as you were 18 or over, you could participate! So I did! You basically said, “Dear Mr. President,” then say something you hope Obama does or focuses on during his Presidency, then say who you are and where you’re from.
I said I hope he focuses on education since I’m struggling to go to college cuz I can’t pay for it and most people in high school aren’t getting good educations. And one of the guys in the room had a sleeve of tattoos, and it was SO COOL, lol. <3
After that, I ate my dinner upstairs. It was SO good. I love that chicken. I called mom and dad and talked to them for a while, then I went downstairs for our last seminar of the day. It was also good, but not as good as the second one. It was about the Constitution and the President’s power vs. Congressional power. It was very interesting, that’s for sure! :]
We had our caucus meetings after that. We found out a few things: [1] though they were kinda promised when we signed up for this event, not all of us can get tickets for the Inauguration. There’s a section that’s up close to the stage where Obama’s getting inaugurated, see, and that section is closed off and is only for people with tickets.
We’re still going to the Inauguration, we just aren’t guaranteed to be up close. There are 60 tickets and who gets them was already decided at random by our Congressional representatives. [2] Because of the extreme security and huge amount of people coming here for the Inauguration, Secret Service says we have to choose: Inauguration or parade.
Since we’re all going to the Inauguration, we can’t go to the parade. [3] The Inaugural Ball we’re going to? It’s pretty much a lame-ass dance here at the hotel. I surrsly thought it was gonna be a legit ball around town cuz, HELLO, there are, like, 600 balls (haha). It pissed me off, I went to a lame-ass dance here LAST time.
Really, that last thing is the only thing that annoyed me. I really hoped I could meet Obama, but it’s highly unlikely to pretty much not gonna happen. *sigh* Oh, well. The caucus meeting was boring and we got out much earlier tonight than we did last night.
The roomies and I stayed up chatting for an hour, then took showers and now it’s time for bed.
Love y’all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
Tags: life, me, presidential classroom, parents, sleep, food, stupid people, angry, shopping, music, john legend
Mood: eh, moldova
See: hotel room
Hear: *absolutely nothing*
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Title: I’m Not Sposed to Use The Word “Stimulus” Anymore, I’m Not Sure Why
Entry:
Hello people!
GOD, today was a fucking long day. OMG, you have no idea how long those seminars seem when they’re consecutively one after another. *shakes head*
We got up around 6:30 this morning and had some breakfast. I got a caramel macchiato and, thankfully, didn’t have to throw it away this morning cuz we went straight to the bus. We boarded our buses and took an hour-long ride to Mount Vernon.
Mount Vernon was Washington’s estate/home. It was AMAZING. I honestly thought it would blow and be totally boring, but the house was really cool and they had two gift shops, both of which had a TON of awesome stuff.
The key to the Bastille was hung in Washington’s house. I thought that was particularly interesting, but that’s cuz I totally love the French Revolution. And in the gift shop, they had mini!Bastille key keychains, lol. THEY WERE SO AWESOME. I bought one, of course, lol.
I also got: a mug and a stuffed kitty that looked exactly like our cat, Budgie, for dad (he LOVES Budgie), a Mount Vernon cookbook and a Free Masons ornament for mom, a t-shirt for Nick and an Inauguration t-shirt for myself. We left after about an hour.
Then we came back to the hotel for lunch (they have a small food court here). There’s Subway, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. I didn’t want the two latter, so I got a pepperoni sandwich from Subway. It was SO fucking good. OMG, so delicious, lol.
We were sposed to tour the Smithsonian and all the memorials and such today, but they completely cut that from our agenda and, instead, we had a bunch of seminars. *headdesk* The first one was by a Lincoln expert, um…Dr. Ed Smith. He was pretty cool, even though I’m not interested in Lincoln very much.
Halfway through his presentation, a surprise speaker arrived: BILL MOTHERFUCKING CLINTON (BITCHES). I surrsly FLIPPED. My parents and I are BIG Bill fans (we’re kinda fans of the Clinton couple, but more Bill than Hillary, lol).
He was SO awesome. He talked to us for an hour about our futures and not being afraid to take chances and such. It really was totally great. Unfortunately, he had to leave immediately and I couldn’t shake his hand either. I’m really annoyed about that. Oh, well. The title of this post is something Bill said (as a joke, of course). X]
After he left, Dr. Smith finished his seminar. We had a brake for refreshments; the hotel provided us with coffee (it was AWFUL) and cakes/brownies/cookies. The latter were pretty good, lol, I had a piece of cake. <3 But yeah, the coffee blew.
We went back to the conference room and were treated to a hilarious performance by a comedy group known as the Capitol Steps. They were SO FUNNY. They have a website, http://www.capsteps.com, and they have a bunch of CDs available for sale. They had a few of their CDs in the lobby, so I bought one.
Finally, we had dinner. I ate the hotel dinner and guess what?! It didn’t suck! I think they somehow started making food better this year. They had ravioli and meatballs and salad and all of them were pretty good. Oh, and they had really good bread, too. :]
I stopped at the Presidential Classroom store to pick up some pins cuz I knew they had them there. I got a flag pin (only because it reminds me of TCR and, therefore, makes me laugh) and a donkey pin. SO MUCH WIN. They’re adorable.
Then we watched the video of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I think everyone’s kinda, ya know, seen it a million times, so it was a tad boring, but still. Moving. THEN, we had Inaugural prep and then our caucus meetings.
The Inauguration sounds a little scary. I mean, the HUGE amount of security is kinda frightening cuz I’ll always be afraid of doing something I’m not sposed to. *shudders* And the ridiculous amount of people is scary cuz who knows what might happen? There might be pick-pockets and criminals and yeah. Kinda scary.
Anywho, the caucus meeting was virtually pointless. We really didn’t do much of anything. Then we all headed up to take showers and go to bed. *TIRED* Gotta get up at 2:30 tomorrow, so I should get to sleep myself. Night!
Love y’all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
Tags: life, me, presidential classroom, parents, sleep, food, angry, shopping
Mood: eh, moldova
See: hotel room
Hear: *absolutely nothing*
====
Title: I Wear My Socks One Pair at a Time…
Entry:
Hello people!
OH MAN. It sucks getting up at 3:00. Seriously, NEVER DO IT. *headdesk*
So, I didn’t get to sleep til 1:00. Blech. I got a few strips of bacon for breakfast cuz I couldn’t bring myself to eat a whole meal - seriously, I can’t eat breakfast at six or seven in the morning, let alone as early as three! I’m not a morning person at all and eating breakfast that early makes me very nauseous.
I woke up with heartburn, even though I didn’t really eat anything that would cause it. *shakes head* So the day started kinda sucky. We boarded the bus and I was feeling kinda down cuz, well, yeah, as I said, I’m not a morning person. I listened to some music, though, and it made me feel a lot better. <3
When we got there, they announced that most of Caucus One and Two were getting most if not all of the tickets to the ticketed section of the Inauguration viewing area/the Mall, whatever, lol. Only about six of us didn’t get tickets; I was one of them.
S’okay, really, I didn’t mind too much, I just didn’t wanna be supremely far away. We were sposed to have groups of four or six, and I was in a group of four, but two of the girls in my group had tickets. The other girl and I decided to stick together.
We were stuck with this random girl from our caucus who was, like, really annoying and wouldn’t stop yelling for us to hurry up. *facepalm* My group-mate, Krysten, was really cool and funny and made me laugh during our ridiculously long walk to the Mall.
I think we got kinda lost on the way until we ran into a HUGE group of people pretty much being hoarded down streets and through a tunnel and such to get to the Mall. We were seriously being led like cattle to the Mall.
After, oh, I think two hours of walking, we got to the Mall. It was CROWDED LIKE WHOA. Surrsly, I couldn’t even guess how many people were there. We were about halfway between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument.
We could pretty much see the nearest Jumbo-Tron, but because I’m so short, I couldn’t really see much of anything. S’okay, though, I could hear everything just fine. The pretty huge downside? It was FUCKING FREEZING.
Seriously, I couldn’t feel my toes for pretty much the entire five hours that we stood there, waiting for the Inauguration to start. *guh* When the wind blew, it was a biting cold, ya know? Like, that clean, bite of chilliness, lol?
We huddled together and Krysten hugged me every now and then to warm me up. She is seriously incredibly awesome, lol. The people who were working the Jumbo-Trons played the concert thing at the Lincoln Memorial that was on Sunday while we waited.
It was pretty cool, a TON of people were there; Steve Carell, John Legend, James Taylor, George Lopez, U2, etc. It was really awesome. And a few of the songs got our whole group REALLY pumped up (which got us a little warmer) like Shout and American Pie. It was fun, I loved singing and jumping and shit with everyone, LOL!
After those four hours of ridiculous cold, the Inauguration FINALLY started. Oh, man, it was good. Everyone booed when Bush came down (myself included) and I was so amused by it, lol. That idiot girl with us was like, “Aww, I feel bad for him.”
I said, “Why? He’s a douche, he deserves to be booed.” She said, “Yeah, but still. I still feel bad for him.” Honestly, that kinda annoyed me. Whatever, she was just blah. OMG, when Obama and that douche of a judge fumbled with the Oath, it was so, dare I say, cute! XD
Oh, but JEEZ, I HATED the invocation. I really kinda hope Rick Warren spontaneously combusts. *sigh* We left after Obama gave his speech, attempting to get a jump on getting back to Union Station, which is where our buses were waiting for us.
Well, we got lost and lots of roads were blocked cuz of the parade and we walked around for another…oh, I’d say roughly two hours before we finally made it back to the bus. I was so pissed off cuz the wind had picked up and my face literally stung.
I called mom the second we got to the hotel, which was another two hours later cuz a ton of OTHER people had gotten lost, too (the instructors basically ditched us if we didn’t have a ticket and we couldn’t find our way back).
I whined and complained to her for about half an hour about how cold I was and really, it didn’t feel worth it to me at the time. OH! And I was left on the bus, sleeping; no one bothered to wake me up and let me know we were at the hotel except the fucking bus driver.
So, after I talked to mom, I fell asleep and slept for another half hour, til 5:00. Then, I started packing my stuff, as we were sposed to. I also took a shower in prep for the dance. My roomies and I watched a little of CNN’s coverage of the parade as we packed.
Around 6:00, we all got dressed and did our hair and whatnot and headed down to the ballroom for our “banquet.” I sat with Kasey and some of her friends (I would assume from her caucus). It was pretty fun. I sat next to a super cute guy and he was really funny, too!
We had salad and chicken on a glob of mashed potatoes with veggies. The veggies were gross and I didn’t eat them, but the chicken and potatoes and salad were SO good. OH, man, they’ve got some pretty good mashed potatoes. <3
A 17-year-old beauty queen bitch was there, at a table next to ours, and she was served the same thing as us. She took one bite, then pushed the plate away. The cute guy and I joked that she prolly never eats and we totally called it that she wouldn’t eat her food.
God, what a snot she was. You could just tell by looking at her that she was incredibly full of herself. She spoke to us as our final speaker and it was annoying. I can’t believe they chose to have HER speak to us. *shakes head*
Oh, they had us do the Pledge of Allegiance, too, and I left out the “under God” part. It felt really good, lol. We were also spoken to by a senator, but I can’t remember his name for the life of me…or what state he was there for…*shrugs*
After that, we had a last-minute caucus meeting where we got certificates (lame, lol), our group photos from the Jefferson Memorial, and a cute little Inauguration pin. Oh, and I got to shake Lt. Cramer’s hand, which made me slightly squeeful. XD What can I say? I thought he was really cute!
So, then we went to the dance. I was gonna go to my room and drop off my photo and certificate, but my dumbass key wouldn’t work, so I just skipped it and decided to leave my stuff on one of the many tables in the ballroom and hope it wouldn’t get stolen.
Kasey and I pretty much stayed together the whole time, which I’m grateful for; I HATE dancing alone. We left our stuff in a pile together and went to the dance floor. They played some great music, a little Michael Jackson, some…well, some other stuff, lol.
I actually hadn’t heard half the songs, but it was still fun. And the DJ did an 80’s mix and I knew EVERY SONG he played! XD It was so awesome. <3 OMG, this creepy guy who totally looked like the Penguin from Batman was, like, stalking Kasey, so we kept trying to get away from him. It was so weird.
Oh, the title of this post is something this weirdo girl said to Kasey. We were sposed to wear multiple socks, pants, shirts, coats, etc. to keep warm during the Inauguration, ya know? So Kasey asked this girl who was hanging around her during the event, "How many pairs of socks are you wearing?" And the girl was like, "One..." and Kasey said, "Don't you have extra pairs?" and the girl said the title. *shakes head*
At about 11:00, we decided to go to bed. I thought they were gonna do room checks like they do every night, so I laid down but I left the light on and the TV on. I wound up falling asleep, but it didn’t matter cuz, for some reason, they didn’t do the room check. *shrugs*
So ends my trip. I must admit, I’m freakishly glad it’s over. I don’t wanna go to school, but I really missed home and my parents and yes, even Nick. X] AND YOU GUYS, ZOMFG!
Love y’all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
Tags: life, me, presidential classroom, parents, sleep, food, angry, dance, music, inauguration, president, guys, tv, d.c.
Mood: eh, moldova
See: hotel room
Hear: *absolutely nothing*
Love y'all - Mira/Doc/Kat *meow*
P.S. Sorry bout the funky spacing... :}