So passes a Ruthena-less Wednesday. Aaaaaaaarrrrrrgh!

Okay, so, I got home ‘round 6 pm, and Valerie told me that we had Internet, but it wasn’t wireless, so we had to figure out how to plug these cords (we had one between us, but luckily she had another one) into our computers and then into the wall, and THEN figure out on the computer screen how to un-do the wireless thing and reconnect to the wireful thing. Somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, I decided to go shopping for groceries at the Watergate Safeway (my new favorite place for, um, everything). Despite our fears that all stores would be totally packed and almost empty during Inauguration Day and the following days, Safeway wasn’t crowded at all and had plenty of food. And thanks to my nice new Safeway card, I got a discount :). After coming home, I fiddled with the Internet some more, and finally managed to get it working, with Valerie’s help. By then, of course, it was time for Institute, which ran until 9:30 or so. Starving even after the consumption of our post-Institute ice cream sundaes, I ate my dinner, and then remembered I had to finish up some homework, clean my dishes, and take out our trash. After doing that, guess what!? It’s 12:07 am, and no Wednesday post. Soooooo... I apologize.

After the luxurious five-day weekend (sans the breaking down of the Barlow Center) and hyped-up festivities of Inauguration, it felt strange to go back to work today. Everything seemed rather commonplace and blah, particularly when I found out that most of my co-workers had, true to their word, stayed inside for the whole time and watched whatever they wanted to see on T.V. I myself had a bit of a sore throat from the exposure to the cold weather, I assume (‘Cause I was SO not that crazy girl you’ll see on TV screaming “O-BAM-a! OOOO-bama!” at the top of her lungs for five full minutes), and was careful to wear all my warm clothing again today to hopefully stave off any worsening illness. Right now my voice sounds much worse than my throat feels—which is fine with me. The only foreseeable problem is that I’m scheduled to do phone duty tomorrow (the other interns have all arrived now, but none of them have been “trained” yet, so guess who got stuck with the first shift?). It’s only for an hour on Thursdays, so I’m crossing my fingers and praying and fasting that NO ONE will call. And that the secretary will be in a good mood. It’s a little difficult to gage her moods: Today she seemed kind of snappish while sorting the mail and complaining about something to a few co-workers, but she also gave me a nice wave this morning and said something (she speaks kinda fast, so I didn’t catch exactly what) to me in a friendly way as I left the building today, so I don’t think she was mad at me for anything... I’ve stayed away from all the malfunctioning or prone-to-malfunctioning machines as much as possible, and the printer has been cooperative with others so far, so I can only hope my streak of good luck continues.

Work was made even more blah by the fact that I had nothing but two pieces of plain bread, broccoli, carrots, and an apple for a lunch, so in my shopping trip I decided to be a little extravagant and buy some peanut butter and jam. Assuming I like the change, I shall endeavor to make both items last for a good long while.

And that’s pretty much all I have to say about this day. Scroll along to the next post to see my write-up about Inauguration Day. I debated on whether or not to save the post for when I have time to put some pictures, but I figured you guys would probably rather read about my experience while the day is fresh in your minds. So stay tuned for another Inauguration-themed posting with all the fun pictures and videos!