I have nothing. Ben, I have nothing...I have twelve paragraphs of nothing

I’m feeling kind of tired tonight, and not very motivated to write a long post about my day...but here I go, anyway.

Today was the first real day of the year here in D.C. where it actually snowed. And boy did it snow! Not as in we got a lot of snow, but as in like, ALL DAY IT WAS SNOWING. It was really pretty and exciting in the morning, but slippery and annoying in the evening. After all my parents’ hard efforts to send me a nice sturdy umbrella, can you believe that I just walked off this morning without it!?!? Well, on the bright side, it was probably my only opportunity for the entire year to arrive at work covered with a fine attractive layer of white powder. I was very grateful for the lack of snow during Inauguration Day, but would actually like to see some more snow here. It makes everything look so pretty! Also, there’s a rumor going around that the city officials panic and shut everything down when there’s enough to build a snowman, so we don’t have to go to work... But I, like doubting Thomas, need to see this thing before I will believe it.

Anyway, I found the snow pretty difficult to navigate in my completely pathetic tractionless (but oh so professional-looking) boots, so if it’s still wet and slushy tomorrow (highly likely) and if I still have to go to work (siiiiiighs notwithstanding, highly likely), I might wear my Keds and just slip my Sunday shoes in my bag to wear while at work. The Keds worked very well for me when I went to Georgetown and to the Kennedy Center after work today. And anything is better than having to leave another half hour earlier so as to inch along in tractionless shoes and still get to work on time and sans snowy-muddy ("Smudwy?" Whadda ya think, Kirster?) clothes from falling in the street.

Work was rather normal and nice. The receptionist was out for the day, making it even more quiet and peaceful than usual... And my computer worked fine all day and I finished updating the files I was given and I got to work on a fun interview piece for the upcoming magazine and I finally met with the HR guy to get a lot of paperwork to fill out about getting paid. That last part has me a little worried, but I’m going to do my best to get it all done tomorrow, and may end up calling Dad for help. Hear that, Dad? Can you manage to stick around the phones tomorrow?

I had lunch from 1:30-2:30, and read The Washington Post in the nice big lunch room on the 6th floor. I try to read the paper every day but don’t always make it. Of course, we’re encouraged to read as many papers as possible while in D.C., but since Professor Bowen sends us a lot of articles and videos to review for class, and I have other readings to do for the internship, there’s never time to read everything. I do like The Washington Post, though. They have interesting articles and commentary on what’s taking place. Unfortunately, they do not have Dilbert.

By the time I finished work, it was dark again as usual (grumble, grumble), and it took me longer than usual to make my way home in the slushy snow. But I enjoyed the nice long walk anyway—I do get a lot of exercise walking to and from work, and it’s always nice to save money by not riding the Metro. Plus, there’s always a lot to see in the streets: Cute quaint shops, very old or distinguished buildings (did I tell y’all I can pass the house of President James Monroe every day on my route? I’ll have to take a picture sometime), funky little restaurants and pubs (“Foggy Bottom Pub” has such a Londonish air about it, wouldn’t you agree?), important business people who somehow seem much less important when they are standing outside in order to smoke a cigarette, foreign people speaking to each other in their own foreign language (hardly a day goes by without my hearing some Asian language, and the other day two fellows took me by surprise by speaking English in a Scottish accent! Very neat!), strange-acting homeless men who try to dissuade me from going into McDonalds...

Random story time! Last week I was sent out to pick up a news magazine with an article about our museum in it. I went around to a hotel close to the museum, picked up the magazine (it was free!), and was on my way back when I passed a McDonalds. For no reason at all, I decided to go in and see what they had on the menu and how much it cost and so on. However, before I could open the door, this random shabbily dressed, unsteady looking guy stumbled outside. He was holding the door open for me, but then he stopped and, staring, said, “YOU’RE going in THERE!?!” I paused, almost already inside, and ran a quick scan of my memory to reassure myself that entering a McDonald’s was not a heinous crime in the United States (well, by some standards...), and said, “Um, yeah.” This bit of affirmation astounded “random tipsy man” beyond all proportion. He informed me that the McDonald’s was “bad,” even “terrible,” and that I would be taking great risks (it was not clear whether these would be to my purse, stomach, person, or life) should I cross the threshold. “Suit yourself,” he warned, like an ominous prophet, before lurching down the street while hiccoughing, staring, and cackling back at me like a witless buffoon. By this time, I had determined to go inside McDonalds simply to get away from this unsavory character, but I was sufficiently unnerved by our conversation to do nothing inside the establishment (which, by the way, seemed as perfectly normal a McDonald’s as one could expect to see) other than wait for him to exit the immediate area before stepping out again. Moral of the random story?

A. Apparently I’m too good for McDonald’s.
B. Don’t judge a McDonald’s by its cover. Or a crazy homeless man by his craziness (after all, he was probably right about McDonald’s being “bad.”). Or a poor college student by a remarkably professional and high-class demeanor (I’m convinced the “boots” made all the difference).
C. I think we can all agree that it is still considered to be socially acceptable for guys to hold doors open for girls.

The point of all this was that I like to walk in D.C., and especially now that I don’t have to look at a map at every corner to figure out where I’m going. So I walked home after work, then immediately walked to the Kennedy Center and enjoyed most of the free concert. It was a group of operatic singers called the National Washington Opera Group or something like that. All the singers were incredibly talented, but all but one of their songs was in Italian and it was a little hard to always pay attention. Especially since I was falling asleep by this time. Oh, and there was a young girl next to me who kept coughing during the whole thing. I could have shot her down with the eyes of hate, but her mother seemed pretty embarrassed about it, and eventually made her switch seats to move away without any prompting from me whatsoever. So apparently “thoughts of hate” are becoming just as effective...!?

After the concert, I went shopping at Safeway (a record-breaking four bags—the most that I’ve ever carried from one shopping trip!) and then home to eat dinner, a nice ham-thing in the MRE package. After dinner, I walked to Georgetown and spent an hour in what is rapidly becoming my favorite place in D.C., if not the world: Barnes & Noble.

And NOW...I’ve just been informed by Valerie that she has been having rather lengthy and substantive conversation via Facebook with a very potentially date-able young man whom she met at the ice skating activity last week. They’ve exchanged four or five messages and looked at each other’s photos only in the past few days, which sounds pretty serious.

Apologies for not posting about Sunday or Monday. I do have a Sunday draft scribbled out, but Monday and all of its dreary Mondayness is kind of slipping away from me, so I might have to let that one go.

Don’t forget to comment! Love to you all!

P.s. Did anyone else noticed the shift in my attitude from "I don't wanna write" at the beginning to "If ONLY I could keep writing!" at the end...? Just curious.