(no subject)
Wow. today is the first time in a loooooooong time that I am home while the sun is still (sort of) up. It feels kind of surreal, but really really good. :)
So I just got back from DC late Sunday night. I had a good time seeing one of a close hometown friend, his lab (he's doing a PhD with lasers!), playing in an ultimate frisbee tournament and going to a pretty kickin' Cinqo de Mayo party. Other than that, the whole trip was a bit of a mess.
One friend I really, really wanted to see was gone to Bermuda for his birthday just this weekend (though, at least I found out a week before), my best friend was going to come down to see me until her Grandmother from Florida unexpectedly suprised the family the day before with a visit, and 3 of Mike's students which he thought were suppposed to fly in on Monday to help with this EPA science fair thing (the reason he went to DC and I had decided to tag along) came, instead, on Saturday with no way of getting from the airport to DC and with no place to stay. We found this out when they called us from the airport. I then spent most of Sunday in a car with these kids trying to find a hotel which was a shit-show and a half. I literally could not make this stuff up:
First, we all woke up at noon, but Mike, being the early-bird that he is, got up early and booked a cheap $70/night hotel near the metro so they could easily get to the Mall during the week (where the science fair was being held.) I got a call from my airline telling me my flight had been canceled and was now scheduled for 9:50 pm. "Sweet," I thought, "Maybe I can go to a museum or something." But first we had to drop the 3 student engineers off safely at Hotel A. (Our hometown friend was nice enough to lend us his car, or all this would have happened with the added stress of the metro.)
When we got to the "President's Inn" at 1600 New York Ave, not only was it absurdly-seedy (right next to a highway overpass, strange critters darting away before you spot them, oddly-stained lobby carpet, stale smell of uncirculated air, flies buzzing around the counter-top, and everything inside the place moving in slow motion), but they had lost the reservation entirely and could not help us. Our young engineers had eyes the size of dinner plates anyway.
Next, Mike had his students call a few friends who were "studying abroad" in DC and ask if they could stay the university housing there. It turned out they had $45/night guest house but needed to wait for the RA to get back to see if we could stay. Getting their was a trip - no one could tell us where we were and the streets made no sense. No grid, terribly laid-out diagonal non-alphabetical crossways - the engineers-in-training I had in the car tore DC's urban planner a new one along the way. Eventually, we bought a crappy map in a gas station and managed to get ourselves to the dorm. It looked promising for a while but then we got kicked out of there too because we didn't tell the RA we were coming in advance. (which was kind of asinine really.) We then ate for the first time that day. It was 7 pm.
Finally, using the comunal computer in their lobby, we booked a $140/night "6 blocks from the Mall", piled all of our luggage (which we had been toting from place to place, btw, several carry-ons sitting in people's laps) back into the car, and headed towards the capital. After driving around for about a 1/2 hr to get near the place (many streets were missing on either the map or on the street according to the map), we get to the intersection of "C street and 6th street" only to find a residential neighborhood. We call the hotel about 6 times. The people we get are either totally inept or tell us we are. "You see C street, 6th street, and Maryland?? That's impossible!" And then we realize: there are 2 C streets. wtf DC!? wtf. We try to find the other, more southern C street and are still getting no where. At about 8:20, we decide to get me to the airport. I'm there by about 9:00 and race to make it on the flight. Which I did, and I was glad to leave.
So I just got back from DC late Sunday night. I had a good time seeing one of a close hometown friend, his lab (he's doing a PhD with lasers!), playing in an ultimate frisbee tournament and going to a pretty kickin' Cinqo de Mayo party. Other than that, the whole trip was a bit of a mess.
One friend I really, really wanted to see was gone to Bermuda for his birthday just this weekend (though, at least I found out a week before), my best friend was going to come down to see me until her Grandmother from Florida unexpectedly suprised the family the day before with a visit, and 3 of Mike's students which he thought were suppposed to fly in on Monday to help with this EPA science fair thing (the reason he went to DC and I had decided to tag along) came, instead, on Saturday with no way of getting from the airport to DC and with no place to stay. We found this out when they called us from the airport. I then spent most of Sunday in a car with these kids trying to find a hotel which was a shit-show and a half. I literally could not make this stuff up:
First, we all woke up at noon, but Mike, being the early-bird that he is, got up early and booked a cheap $70/night hotel near the metro so they could easily get to the Mall during the week (where the science fair was being held.) I got a call from my airline telling me my flight had been canceled and was now scheduled for 9:50 pm. "Sweet," I thought, "Maybe I can go to a museum or something." But first we had to drop the 3 student engineers off safely at Hotel A. (Our hometown friend was nice enough to lend us his car, or all this would have happened with the added stress of the metro.)
When we got to the "President's Inn" at 1600 New York Ave, not only was it absurdly-seedy (right next to a highway overpass, strange critters darting away before you spot them, oddly-stained lobby carpet, stale smell of uncirculated air, flies buzzing around the counter-top, and everything inside the place moving in slow motion), but they had lost the reservation entirely and could not help us. Our young engineers had eyes the size of dinner plates anyway.
Next, Mike had his students call a few friends who were "studying abroad" in DC and ask if they could stay the university housing there. It turned out they had $45/night guest house but needed to wait for the RA to get back to see if we could stay. Getting their was a trip - no one could tell us where we were and the streets made no sense. No grid, terribly laid-out diagonal non-alphabetical crossways - the engineers-in-training I had in the car tore DC's urban planner a new one along the way. Eventually, we bought a crappy map in a gas station and managed to get ourselves to the dorm. It looked promising for a while but then we got kicked out of there too because we didn't tell the RA we were coming in advance. (which was kind of asinine really.) We then ate for the first time that day. It was 7 pm.
Finally, using the comunal computer in their lobby, we booked a $140/night "6 blocks from the Mall", piled all of our luggage (which we had been toting from place to place, btw, several carry-ons sitting in people's laps) back into the car, and headed towards the capital. After driving around for about a 1/2 hr to get near the place (many streets were missing on either the map or on the street according to the map), we get to the intersection of "C street and 6th street" only to find a residential neighborhood. We call the hotel about 6 times. The people we get are either totally inept or tell us we are. "You see C street, 6th street, and Maryland?? That's impossible!" And then we realize: there are 2 C streets. wtf DC!? wtf. We try to find the other, more southern C street and are still getting no where. At about 8:20, we decide to get me to the airport. I'm there by about 9:00 and race to make it on the flight. Which I did, and I was glad to leave.