Washington DC, Here I come!!
Let me start by saying I do not own a television, but I do work near one. As you all suddenly know, the job that pays my bills takes place in a Hotel in the middle of the night. hehe. I will let your imagination run any which way it likes from there. At any rate there is TV at my place of employment, late night TV. This includes such cultural icons as Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. About a month ago I was flipping channels and paused on the Colbert Report while Stephen was discussing an upcoming rally in our nation's capitol. I have never been to the Capitol. This was an excellent excuse to remedy that situation.
I immediately lept into action!! A note on facebook informed my friends that I was lookin' to put together a carpool for this epic adventure and it didn't take long for the vehicle to fill up.... of course that did not last..... Grrrrrrr..... Half the carpool bailed on the Monday before we left and that kind of screwed up the financing for the trip but those of us who remained picked ourselves up by our bootstraps and charged forward without a backward glance. We were still going dammit. We got in the car Friday morning and embarked on a journey that I hope never to repeat. 10 hours is way too damn long to sit my 6'2" ass in my little Chevy Aveo without cruise control. Next time I will fly or ride in the back of a friend's truck. Friday night was not exciting. Brendan Durrett and I checked into our hotel, grabbed some grub and then went to sleep. Saturday is when the crazy really began.
It turns out you cannot see all of Washington DC in a single Saturday. I bet I couldn't have done it even if the place wasn't lousy with tourists. Brendan went directly to the "Mall" where you can buy a shirt but not a leather jacket. I went to Arlington National Cemetery first. I guess I should not have been surprised that there are asshats in every venue. I got to see some guy sitting on a tombstone taking a break. I saw 2 little girls screaming at their father for walking past a stay off the grass sign to wander across several graves. I even got to overhear a loud obnoxious history lesson from a guy standing next to a "silence" sign over at the eternal flame. He was trying to inform anyone who would listen about all kinds of trivia.
I eventually left the cemetery and headed back to the "Metro"(train/subway). You know how sometimes you look back and say to yourself "Self, I wonder what would have happened if I had done things differently?" I had one of those moments on my way to the rally. As I was standing on the platform two beautiful young women walked by to board another train and I couldn't help overhearing their conversation. They were discussing the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and the importance of carrying a towel. In my one moment of indecision the doors closed and the pair were whisked away to wherever that train goes and I had missed an opportunity. I almost wish I had lept into the car with them to participate in the conversation and see where it would have led. I think it may have been worth skipping the rally for. Of course it's possible that one of them will stumble across this blog, track me down and chain me to the wall for some fun and games. I'll let you folks know how it turns out (:
I eventually made it to the "Mall" just in time to be about 200 yards from a stage that you couldn't see and a speaker you could only occasionally hear. The sea of humanity was kind of amusing at first but quickly lost it's appeal. After almost an hour of of craning my neck to see into my little camcorder screen with the zoom on full and the folks behind me sharing in the stiff neck parade I decided to scoot off and try to see some of the museums. It turns out there are several Smithsonians spread around the area and I somehow managed to wade through the crowd to find the only one that didn't actually have exhibits. It was an information building where I could buy pamphlets and books about all the awesome places I was not currently located. If I was a crier this would have been a good time to break down. Fortunately I am a tough guy so I persevered and headed back into the fray to see if I could find something else. What I found was modern sculpture that was about as uninteresting as possible. That may be why it had been converted into jungle gyms by all the unattended children.
After close to 2 hours of hell I finally gave up and figured I would wander about randomly and see where I ended up. As ridiculous as this is going to sound the randomness took me within a hundred feet of the stage and to a pretty good shot of the action. That is how I got the picture that graces the top of this little article.
Speaking of pictures I am posting 2 reasonably sizable photo albums on Facebook that cover a lot of the coolness I saw while I was in DC. One is pretty much all signs and the other is everything else. Click on the pictures below this to go directly to the albums (:
I immediately lept into action!! A note on facebook informed my friends that I was lookin' to put together a carpool for this epic adventure and it didn't take long for the vehicle to fill up.... of course that did not last..... Grrrrrrr..... Half the carpool bailed on the Monday before we left and that kind of screwed up the financing for the trip but those of us who remained picked ourselves up by our bootstraps and charged forward without a backward glance. We were still going dammit. We got in the car Friday morning and embarked on a journey that I hope never to repeat. 10 hours is way too damn long to sit my 6'2" ass in my little Chevy Aveo without cruise control. Next time I will fly or ride in the back of a friend's truck. Friday night was not exciting. Brendan Durrett and I checked into our hotel, grabbed some grub and then went to sleep. Saturday is when the crazy really began.
It turns out you cannot see all of Washington DC in a single Saturday. I bet I couldn't have done it even if the place wasn't lousy with tourists. Brendan went directly to the "Mall" where you can buy a shirt but not a leather jacket. I went to Arlington National Cemetery first. I guess I should not have been surprised that there are asshats in every venue. I got to see some guy sitting on a tombstone taking a break. I saw 2 little girls screaming at their father for walking past a stay off the grass sign to wander across several graves. I even got to overhear a loud obnoxious history lesson from a guy standing next to a "silence" sign over at the eternal flame. He was trying to inform anyone who would listen about all kinds of trivia.
I eventually left the cemetery and headed back to the "Metro"(train/subway). You know how sometimes you look back and say to yourself "Self, I wonder what would have happened if I had done things differently?" I had one of those moments on my way to the rally. As I was standing on the platform two beautiful young women walked by to board another train and I couldn't help overhearing their conversation. They were discussing the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and the importance of carrying a towel. In my one moment of indecision the doors closed and the pair were whisked away to wherever that train goes and I had missed an opportunity. I almost wish I had lept into the car with them to participate in the conversation and see where it would have led. I think it may have been worth skipping the rally for. Of course it's possible that one of them will stumble across this blog, track me down and chain me to the wall for some fun and games. I'll let you folks know how it turns out (:
I eventually made it to the "Mall" just in time to be about 200 yards from a stage that you couldn't see and a speaker you could only occasionally hear. The sea of humanity was kind of amusing at first but quickly lost it's appeal. After almost an hour of of craning my neck to see into my little camcorder screen with the zoom on full and the folks behind me sharing in the stiff neck parade I decided to scoot off and try to see some of the museums. It turns out there are several Smithsonians spread around the area and I somehow managed to wade through the crowd to find the only one that didn't actually have exhibits. It was an information building where I could buy pamphlets and books about all the awesome places I was not currently located. If I was a crier this would have been a good time to break down. Fortunately I am a tough guy so I persevered and headed back into the fray to see if I could find something else. What I found was modern sculpture that was about as uninteresting as possible. That may be why it had been converted into jungle gyms by all the unattended children.
After close to 2 hours of hell I finally gave up and figured I would wander about randomly and see where I ended up. As ridiculous as this is going to sound the randomness took me within a hundred feet of the stage and to a pretty good shot of the action. That is how I got the picture that graces the top of this little article.
Speaking of pictures I am posting 2 reasonably sizable photo albums on Facebook that cover a lot of the coolness I saw while I was in DC. One is pretty much all signs and the other is everything else. Click on the pictures below this to go directly to the albums (:
These two photo albums will have to tide you over for a day or 2 while I get the video edited. I have over 3 hours of raw to wade through so it will take a little time. If you get bored waiting you could check out some of my other blog posts by clicking the stuff at the top of the page. (See what I did there with the shameless self promotion?) rofl.