I feel a LOT better now. Not near as panicky or homesick as I was earlier this week. Still feel a little homesick but that's normal. Not much going on, just got done doing math homework which is online... Not a good mix. Thankfully it was pretty quick and really easy so it took little to no time at all to finish. Still figuring out my class websites and stuff like that. It's kind of annoying the way they're switching to all online textbooks and homework assignments. The computer is way to distracting, case and point keeping up a blog or typing e-mails, and it can be rather difficult to find your way around and try to find the assignments themselves. I have most of the websites figured out. There's only one I can not figure out and that's my history one. Have no idea where the assignments are posted.
Kind of disappointed, apparently Slipknot was supposed to be in Casper on September 1st. Had no idea, the date kind of sucks though because it would be Tuesday night and it's a three hour drive to Casper from where I am. But Joey broke his ankle (according to someone in one of my classes) and they canceled the rest of the August- September tour dates. Hopefully they reschedule and hopefully they reschedule the Casper show to a Saturday night.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
College
So far college has been alright. Yesterday, moving in, I didn't really notice being quite so scared until I had nothing to do, but by then I was tired and wanted to sleep...which took a while. Today I woke up and just broke down. Thankfully my roommate is really nice and helped calm me down. Through out the day I've wanted to breakdown but was in a group of people and didn't want to do it then. After the group activities I actually felt pretty confidant. It's weird, I will be completely confidant one moment the next i am absolutely terrified, and I don't know why. I know I'll be fine, the classes I can handle, I've made some new friends, one of which might join one of the groups I'm looking into, so nothing to fear, but I just want to breakdown or feel terrified. It SUCKS! Thankfully one of my best friends from high school is only a text away as is my mom. And I have e-mail, so keeping in touch no problem. And seeing my mom will be easy enough, she lives only a few hours away and we already have vacations planned, so it's not that. Seeing my friend is a little harder, but I'll try to make that work. I kind of hate how much time we have in between when we move in and when we start classes. Just more time for the anxiety to build up. It's like a shot, you get all this anxiety built up and then it's sort of anti-climatic. But anyway, one of the classes I have is a student success group, the one I did activities with today and will continue tomorrow, is a big help already. It's a really small class, only 6 people, so you an get to know people in there.
Crue Fest 2
Me and a friend went to Crue Fest 2, and like Washington D.C. I wrote a journal on it... I have a journal on Aerosmith, which was 2 days before that I'll post later.
Crue Fest 2 was awesome!!! I’d been looking forward to it since mid- June when I had first heard about it. I started planning how I was going to manage to go since it was a weekday and mom couldn’t take me nor come with me so I figured if mom wanted me to go with someone I’d take my best friend Amy. Mom reluctantly agreed, now all I had to do was get a ride, after one ride plan didn’t work out, Ted said he’d take us…so I got tickets and waited for near 3 months. It was worth every second!
We got there around 2:40 so we managed to get pretty close to the front of the line to the gates. Waited until about 3:30 and went over to the second stage they had recently added to the line-up. Didn’t really pay attention to the band playing and went straight for the Monster energy drinks they were handing out. After that we went to the venders and got our shirts and wrist bands, got something to drink then waited in line to get into the amphitheater. We didn’t have to wait long for the first band, Charm City Devils, to start playing.
They were really good, no idea what to expect from them as I had never heard of them, but they rocked and managed to get the crowd pumped up. The leader singer looked like a kid I saw walking down the hallways in high school and the entire band didn’t look like they were late teens early 20’s. But they sounded good, so I might have to go and find their album…
After Charm City Devils, Drowning Pool appeared and they kicked ass! Loud fast, and aggressive as soon as they hit the stage. Amy kept looking at the lead singer. Unfortunately I don’t remember much of their set except for them ending with ‘Bodies’ which everyone sung along to. Then entire crowd was really pumped up, me and Amy included. Theory of a Dead Man came out and compared to Drowning Pool, sounded a little weak. Not quite as hard hitting nor loud as the previous band. Amy and I quickly grew bored and instead of listening to the band focused on a girl in front of us who looked like she drank a little too much or had done something she wasn’t supposed to do. Just a few minutes before Theory came on she was trying to get in a comfortable position to sleep I guess, which is near impossible in the seats we were in and as soon as the band started she was hunched over. Her friends called a medic and about half way through Theory she was wheeled out. By the time the concert was over we saw about 5 people get wheeled out and a couple guys get chased by security, which was kind of amusing. Once they wheeled the girl in front of us out, Amy and I sat there bored commenting how Theory should have gone before Drowning Pool because it kind of killed the vibe and excitement a little bit.
Godsmack – Awake, 37 Stitches, I Stand Alone, Voodoo, an amazing drum solo! Unfortunately I was too wrapped up in the music and show to actually remember much of this part…but they had it down. The pyrotechnics were awesome, they had the fireworks and fire that started in one corner of a platform and crawled across to the other side. Timing couldn’t have been better when they used it, I know they rehearse but they had it down. And the drum solo, Sully and Godsmack’s drummer, I don’t know his name, had their drums sitting on rotating platforms, that moved in any direction, it was rather funny watching them move around the stage and turn as they played drums.
Motley Crue was the best by far! Opened with Dr. Feelgood and had the stage set up so it looked like they were coming out of a sanitarium, a padded room. Loved it! Mick was a lot more active than I thought he would be and his solo’s were amazing. I love how he plays guitar. Once they had the entire stage, after they finished Dr. Feelgood, Nikki ran all over as did Vince, Mick wandered around but liked to stay in his little corner. At the end of the their first performance and the end of the Dr. Feelgood album, they all wandered off, me and Amy thought it was done though it was way before 11…and we started wondering whether we should call out ride to pick us up early but Mick came back on and did a kick ass guitar solo, the first half he used an acoustic guitar and used his blues roots a little more and the second half he used his electric guitar and blew our ears off. The rest of Motley came back on and they played a song I can’t remember…then disappeared again. At this point people came out and started to alter the set. They had a couple people on the front of the stage with saw grinding on a piece of metal making sparks fly. Once the set had been changed they came on again and played Girls, Girls, Girls, Shout at the Devil, Wild Side, and Home Sweet Home. Amy had no idea Tommy played the piano and was amazed as he played it for Home Sweet Home. At the end Tommy came out with his usual bottle of Jagermeister, took a swig then passed it around the audience in the pit. He then chatted with the crowd and was his goofy self. The rest of Motley joined him and he proceeded to thank everyone in the crowd one by one before screaming “Thank You!” and bowing. Me and Amy were hyper and giddy, it was by far the best concert I’ve ever seen…though I’ve only been to two that I can remember (I’ve been to more but I was too young to remember a thing about them). It’s going to take a lot to top that show.
Best part though was when we were leaving the theater, I glanced over to my right and thought I saw Dj Ashba, and in the dumbest sounding voice looked at him and said “Ashba?” to which he turned around smiled and said “Oh, Hi!” before leaving. I am still giddy from that.
Crue Fest 2 was awesome!!! I’d been looking forward to it since mid- June when I had first heard about it. I started planning how I was going to manage to go since it was a weekday and mom couldn’t take me nor come with me so I figured if mom wanted me to go with someone I’d take my best friend Amy. Mom reluctantly agreed, now all I had to do was get a ride, after one ride plan didn’t work out, Ted said he’d take us…so I got tickets and waited for near 3 months. It was worth every second!
We got there around 2:40 so we managed to get pretty close to the front of the line to the gates. Waited until about 3:30 and went over to the second stage they had recently added to the line-up. Didn’t really pay attention to the band playing and went straight for the Monster energy drinks they were handing out. After that we went to the venders and got our shirts and wrist bands, got something to drink then waited in line to get into the amphitheater. We didn’t have to wait long for the first band, Charm City Devils, to start playing.
They were really good, no idea what to expect from them as I had never heard of them, but they rocked and managed to get the crowd pumped up. The leader singer looked like a kid I saw walking down the hallways in high school and the entire band didn’t look like they were late teens early 20’s. But they sounded good, so I might have to go and find their album…
After Charm City Devils, Drowning Pool appeared and they kicked ass! Loud fast, and aggressive as soon as they hit the stage. Amy kept looking at the lead singer. Unfortunately I don’t remember much of their set except for them ending with ‘Bodies’ which everyone sung along to. Then entire crowd was really pumped up, me and Amy included. Theory of a Dead Man came out and compared to Drowning Pool, sounded a little weak. Not quite as hard hitting nor loud as the previous band. Amy and I quickly grew bored and instead of listening to the band focused on a girl in front of us who looked like she drank a little too much or had done something she wasn’t supposed to do. Just a few minutes before Theory came on she was trying to get in a comfortable position to sleep I guess, which is near impossible in the seats we were in and as soon as the band started she was hunched over. Her friends called a medic and about half way through Theory she was wheeled out. By the time the concert was over we saw about 5 people get wheeled out and a couple guys get chased by security, which was kind of amusing. Once they wheeled the girl in front of us out, Amy and I sat there bored commenting how Theory should have gone before Drowning Pool because it kind of killed the vibe and excitement a little bit.
Godsmack – Awake, 37 Stitches, I Stand Alone, Voodoo, an amazing drum solo! Unfortunately I was too wrapped up in the music and show to actually remember much of this part…but they had it down. The pyrotechnics were awesome, they had the fireworks and fire that started in one corner of a platform and crawled across to the other side. Timing couldn’t have been better when they used it, I know they rehearse but they had it down. And the drum solo, Sully and Godsmack’s drummer, I don’t know his name, had their drums sitting on rotating platforms, that moved in any direction, it was rather funny watching them move around the stage and turn as they played drums.
Motley Crue was the best by far! Opened with Dr. Feelgood and had the stage set up so it looked like they were coming out of a sanitarium, a padded room. Loved it! Mick was a lot more active than I thought he would be and his solo’s were amazing. I love how he plays guitar. Once they had the entire stage, after they finished Dr. Feelgood, Nikki ran all over as did Vince, Mick wandered around but liked to stay in his little corner. At the end of the their first performance and the end of the Dr. Feelgood album, they all wandered off, me and Amy thought it was done though it was way before 11…and we started wondering whether we should call out ride to pick us up early but Mick came back on and did a kick ass guitar solo, the first half he used an acoustic guitar and used his blues roots a little more and the second half he used his electric guitar and blew our ears off. The rest of Motley came back on and they played a song I can’t remember…then disappeared again. At this point people came out and started to alter the set. They had a couple people on the front of the stage with saw grinding on a piece of metal making sparks fly. Once the set had been changed they came on again and played Girls, Girls, Girls, Shout at the Devil, Wild Side, and Home Sweet Home. Amy had no idea Tommy played the piano and was amazed as he played it for Home Sweet Home. At the end Tommy came out with his usual bottle of Jagermeister, took a swig then passed it around the audience in the pit. He then chatted with the crowd and was his goofy self. The rest of Motley joined him and he proceeded to thank everyone in the crowd one by one before screaming “Thank You!” and bowing. Me and Amy were hyper and giddy, it was by far the best concert I’ve ever seen…though I’ve only been to two that I can remember (I’ve been to more but I was too young to remember a thing about them). It’s going to take a lot to top that show.
Best part though was when we were leaving the theater, I glanced over to my right and thought I saw Dj Ashba, and in the dumbest sounding voice looked at him and said “Ashba?” to which he turned around smiled and said “Oh, Hi!” before leaving. I am still giddy from that.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Washington D.C.
I took a trip with mom to Washington D.C. July 3rd through July 13th. I kept a journal because a few people wanted to know what I did...well I wrote it but never had anywhere to post it so here it is. It's really long, about 6 pages in Microsoft Word, so not for those who are easily bored...
1st Day: (July 3rd)
-Mom gets up sick, apparently walks downstairs and hurls in the kitchen sink, great start to the morning of our trip.
-Get to the airport at 8 o’ clock and fly to Chicago, after a two hour lay-over, fly to D.C. Screaming children on the Denver- Chicago leg, Chicago- D.C. was relatively quiet. Mom tries to sleep on the first flight no such luck due to screaming child.
-Get to the air port, head to the hotel, and go to bed
2nd Day: (July 4th)
-Recon day; see what’s in the Hotel and what restaurants there are (none), walk down the Mall
-See the 4th of July parade; included all the branches of the U.S. Military, American Indians, Koreans, Vietnamese, Chinese, various school bands, Philippines, and Hare Krishna’s (Mom and I found this befuddling and humorous)
-During the parade my mom noted that there wasn’t a whole lot of English being spoken, lots of Asian though. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, we just kind of found it ironic in a way.
-Go through the National Museum of African Art
-See the Walt Disney- Tishman African Art Collection; displays various treasures including headdresses and ivory carvings
-See the Artful Animals; shows the symbolic meaning of animals in various African tribes
-See the 4th of July fireworks near the Washington Monument; Very cool!! Very loud, and some idiot brought their dog along, as soon as the fireworks started the dog came screaming down the street terrified. Hopefully a cop managed to catch him and calm him down. (And with all the cops there…I think it’d be hard for them not to, but who knows)
-Mom calls Ted for an update of the house and Ted complains about the cats… He’s not used to caring for them so he’s finding out just how hard it is…mom and I have decided that he’s NOT getting a dog if he thinks cats are difficult to take care of. Well, he was in the garage and came into the house. The room you enter from the garage is where the litter box is and apparently Willa was in it, well when Ted came in it scared Willa so she bolted, but she wasn’t quite done…so Ted had to chase Willa around the house picking up shit. Ted can now say he literally scared the crap out of Willa. Poor cat.
-Had a fire truck and a ladder truck pull up to the hotel…nothing happened…but it was interesting to watch
3rd Day: (July 5th)
-Go to the American History Museum
-First Lady’s Hall; displays the first ladies gowns and other various objects (such as combs and purses) they owned
-The Price of Freedom; an exhibit dedicated to the wars America has fought; American Revolution through the War in Iraq
-America on the Move; shows how transportation has changed in America, has the third train built for the Santa Cruz railway
-The original Star-Spangled Banner (it’s HUGE and rather beat-up)
-Julia Child’s kitchen…(yeah…my mom wanted to go…)
-There is also a car from the Disney ride “Dumbo’s Wild Ride”…really rather random…
-The Gunboat Philadelphia, the oldest American fighting vessel
-Popular Culture Selections: Music, Sports, and Entertainment; which displayed various things form sports…not really interested, Music, a lot of old violins and such by Stradivarius, and Entertainment, such as Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch puppets.
-Visit the National Aquarium; kinda lame actually. Lots of little kids, weird species, such as Upside-down Jellyfish (they swim to the bottom and stay there…they look like anemones), Piranhas, Leopard Sharks, and alligators
-Met with Carol (mom’s friend) and had strombolis at a pizza place not too far from the hotel, they chatted and I zoned
4th Day: (July 6th)
-Visit the Holocaust Museum; VERY depressing and in your face.
-Visit the various monuments and memorials via Tourmobile (Which is a bus system that runs up and down the Mall from Union Station down through Arlington Cemetary) Very helpful when you have sore, tired and bruised feet…don’t ask how I managed to bruise the bottom of my foot, I still don’t’ know.
- The Lincoln Memorial, it’s large and crowded but kind of interesting
-FDR memorial; expansive, about 4 square acres-1 for each of his terms- a few waterfalls scattered throughout which are very nice, and lots of sculptures
-Jefferson memorial; similar to Lincoln’s only round and he’s not sitting down…but still crowded
-Korean War memorial; with 19 infantry men from the time coming up the hill and the wall of pictures of not only the deceased but POW’s, MIA’s and those still alive, basically anyone who served
-Vietnam War memorial; the ‘V-shaped’ wall with a list of about 58,000 names of those who died, again in your face
-World War II memorial; starts with a walk-way, on either side is a story of troops (army of air-force) being deployed and fighting then coming home, walk-way ends with a circle of 56 columns (1 for each state, 1 for D.C., and 1 for each U.S. territory) and it ends with Rainbow Pool which is overlooked by 4000 gold stars, 1 star = 100 soldiers who died.
-Walked through security at the Air and Space museum just so we didn’t have to walk around the building…so we walked through the first floor…
5th Day: (July 7th)
-Toured the U.S. Capitol; saw the Rotunda, and the original Senate hall (kinda boring, the Rotunda was cool, the figures are 18 feet tall so they look life size when you look up at them, and saw some of the statues they have there. (Chief Washakie has a statue there…Chief Washakie is from Wyoming and my University has a ‘center building’ dedicated to him)
-In order to get to the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center we had to ask for directions twice, they don’t make it easy to get to and they apparently love to confuse tourists…or in our case travelers (We don’t classify ourselves as tourists…see the General Section below for more explanation on that bit)
-Tried to take the Tourmobile to the Capitol but it didn’t show up in time, so we walked there
-Seeing the Capitol from the outside was cool, the grounds it sits on are massive, they don’t look that big until you start walking on them…oi oi oi, and its uphill too)
-Had lunch at the American Indian Museum, had Fry bread and Buffalo Chili; didn’t actually go through the museum though
-Went to Arlington National Cemetery and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, which is an interesting ceremony and it amazes me…well not amazes me, but baffles me how rude and disrespectful people can be. A girl in front of us took pictures of the graves but she wasn’t even looking at where she was pointing the camera...>< It annoys me when people do that. We don’t have pictures of Arlington just out of respect….it’s a cemetery NOT Disney! During the Changing of the Guard kids were running up and down the stairs and people were shuffling their feet or clacking their high heels…come on people show some respect for the dead and the military guards here! Gah!
6th Day: (July 8th)
-Stayed in the hotel, went up to the pool (which is up on the roof) and sunned a little bit…like we needed that
-Did Absolutely Nothing! (That was the plan actually…so I think it’s safe to say it was a success)
-Ted has an idea! (Mom and I: Ah shit!) For his 50th birthday he wasn’t to go to the Maldives Islands or the Canary Islands…That’s all well and good but the airfare alone on $2,000. He can’t save up $10 let alone $2,000. He has two years to save up that much plus the cost of hotels and food and such. We’ll just let him have his dream…oO; We also learned that Ted does not know how to water plants. Apparently the plant we have hanging outside the front porch, looked a little ‘bleh’, mom asked if the soil was wet and how much he’d been watering it…well, he’s been watering it with a Pepsi glass…nowhere near the amount of water this plant needs…it needs a pitcher full of water…not a Pepsi glass…so I’m going to guess when we get home, the house is going to be trashed (except my room which I cleaned and he doesn’t’ t go in…so unless the cats are partying in there) and the plants are all going to be dead. Izzy got into his bread and ate some of it…no wonder she’s so fat…><
7th Day: (July 9th)
-Rode the Metro to Woodley Park- Zoo, or the National Zoo (The Metro is really easy to navigate…not so easy to get on…people love to butt in front of you and shove you around…but other than that fairly enjoyable.)
-Saw the Giant Pandas which are adorable
-Managed to get the Otters (both) and the lion to yawn and got it on camera
-Sloth bear, fishing cats, which have dinky little tails, red panda, didn’t really see them though they were hidden, bespectacled bear, which are totally cute, a sloth which had crammed itself into a box which was entirely too small for it…I giggled the entire time it was in view. There were lots more and a LOT of people and little children that loved to shove my mom and I around. Rather annoying.
-Finally found the CVS Pharmacy, we have seen a lot of people carrying bags from there but never really found it…we finally did, it’s about half a block from our hotel…if that.
-Ate at McDonalds in the Air and Space Museum…how sad is it when McDonalds is better than any other food options…walked around the first floor…or the part you have to walk through to get to the food court.
-Saw the Russian- U.S. test project, to dock to objects in space together, Apollo-Soyuz. This is back when Russian was the U.S.S.R. It was the last of the Apollo projects and first joint flight of U.S. and Soviet flight projects.
-Also saw the Spirit of Saint Louis, Charles Lindberg’s plane, the first trans-atlantic solo non-stop flight…that’s a mouthful
8th Day: (July 10)
-Went to the Natural History Museum
-Had a scare, saw a HUGE group in front of the building we thought was the Natural History Museum, thankfully it was the one of the art galleries and didn’t have to deal with that group
-Saw the big elephant in front…I didn’t find it all that impressive…looked like a big elephant…
-Went through the Paleontology section, which was interesting. They had a triceratops and a T-rex battling each other with a diplodocus in the middle (not part of the fight scene). Lots of fossils on display, they also had a mummified Long Horned Bison that was freeze dried, the people that found it sewed it together with dental floss to keep it from deteriorating. There was a mummified horse leg too.
-Didn’t bother going into the Hall of Mammals…no interest in seeing stuffed animals.
-Went upstairs to the Hall of Gems and Minerals, first part was pretty boring it explained meteor and asteroids…no pretty gems…there were a few rocks that had some pretty cool designs in them from being super heated and smashed into the earth. Once we got into the gem part it was pretty neat, there were a lot of different gems and minerals on display with all sorts of colors. There were some that glowed neon colors when put under a black light, that was fun to look at.
-We got to look at the Hope Diamond; thankfully we got there early so the crowds were minimal, managed to get a decent picture. The biggest blue diamond in set with 56 (?) diamonds on a platinum chain…talk about over the top and expensive.
-Walked through the Ocean Hall and saw the two giant squids. One was relatively small and the other one was a bit bigger, but apparently had shrunk quite a bit due to it being submerged in embalming fluids…it used to be 36 feet, now it’s about maybe 30-ish feet, disgusting but cool at the same time. They had various eels and a shark embalmed too.
-Got on the Metro and went to the National Geographic Museum
-If you get a chance to go…pass. It’s only one exhibit unless you get a ticket to their special exhibit which takes months. They have the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit now and the next available ticket when we booked the trip would’ve been in November. The free exhibit they had was Lions and Leopards…kind of neat…basically pictures with a few videos…all of which showed Lions and Leopards killing something. I know this happens but I don’t want to watch it…all in all, a big disappointment.
-Came back to the hotel and I conked out and slept for about an two hours or so, then mom wanted to walk to the Mall and get a picture of the Capitol. We took a walk out there and then strolled down the mall and walked through the rose garden near the entrance to the Smithsonian Castle. They have a fairly big collection of different roses, some red, some white, some pink, some were like sunsets and one bush was the color of pale blueberries. We also walked through the Enid A. Haupt Garden and took a lot of pictures. There was another little garden ‘trail’ that we found on the way back to the hotel and walked through there, again lots of pictures, and they had the weirdest and scariest plant I’ve seen yet. The leaves were covered in thorns on the top and the bottom, and the stems were also covered…I’d hate to step on that thing or even have my leg brush against it.
-This was a log ass journal entry…sorry for the rambling…oO; We finally unplugged the stupid fridge as it seems only to be getting louder…
9th Day: (July 11th)
-Went to the National Museum of the American Indian
-No right corners on the building, they’re all circular as it’s a Native American taboo to have right angles
-The door is on the east side of the building, another taboo the builders had to take into consideration as any door the Native Americans had faced East to the rising sun
-Many artifacts from a LOT of different cultures from both South and North America, half from the past and half from the present. It shows how the people live today, instead of how they used to live -There was a pretty nice display for the Chiricahua, the Mescalero Apache, the tribe my mom lived with on the reservation. They also had the Tohono O'odham, the tribe in the Sonoran Desert.
-Went to the Botanical Gardens in the morning, which was nice because a lot of the flowers were in bloom
-Saw a few odd plants…carnivorous…not the Venus Fly Trap but a Pitcher Plant. I never want to touch another plant again…
-Lots of plants from various climates like the jungle and my favorite Desert…lots of cactus
10th Day: (July 12th)
-Lazy day, mainly rode the Tourmobile around, went back to Arlington National Cemetery and visited the Women in Service Museum thing…a tribute to women who served in the army from when they had to dress as men in the Revolutionary War to today. Seems to be focused on the Air Force…
-Stopped at Union Station and had lunch…it’s HUGE! It was like a city within a city. Lots of shops and a food court that looked like it took up the entire lower level…and apparently about 95,000 people go through every day, and only 10,000 go the U.S. Capitol…
-Visited the White House Visiting Center and saw the South side of the White house…my mom and I and hundreds of our closest friends who loved to shove us around
11th Day: (July 13th)
-Got to the airport and one of the flight attendants immediately tried to get us to get on an earlier flight, didn’t really want to due to the fact that we didn’t want to lose our economy plus seats and because we didn’t want to have to wait at DIA for our luggage…(Which was stupid because we’d get to DIA at the same time…) So we got on and had two hours in O’Hare instead of only one, which was nice because we had time to lounge around.
-Got home and the house was messy, the counters were ICKY…and Ted said he had wiped them down the day before…Doe had absolutely NO water WHAT-so-ever…the cat-boxes looked like they hadn’t been scooped in a week…yeah not a great home coming…
In General:
-Tourist- A person, generally in a group, who goes to places to see the highlights or the obvious, but very rarely goes any further into exploring that place. Often rude and without SA, or Situational Awareness, and more likely than is the person walking in front of you as you try to read/ see something, sometimes stopping to read/see it or just stopping. Often reading maps while walking and not paying attention to where they are going…rarely asks for directions. These are the people that annoy us.
-Traveler- Someone who goes to a place to explore all of it, while they do go to popular sites, they often go to some lesser sites and like to explore all around them. They try to have SA, but may occasionally, rarely but it happens, lose it and may walk in front of you, they are the ones saying ‘Excuse me’ and ‘Sorry’ if they walk in front of you unless you piss them off and make them passive aggressive.
-The hotel is NOISY, the fridge loves to makes humming noises and occasionally growl loudly which will stop if you hit or kick it, there’s a railroad track near the hotel so we hear trains come and go. The AC is loud, as in all hotels, it seems to have teamed up with the fridge because as soon as one goes off the other starts…
-There’s a LOT of light. The modem has three lights that are always on, the light that comes through the door to the hallway lights up the room and the alarm clock, which we have covered every night with a towel and museum brochure, it bright enough to land a plane by.
-It’s interesting to watch the worker bee’s go to work, big men in suits with a little brown bag for their lunch or a backpack, which looks silly on a business suit, and it’s also interesting to look into their cubicles to see if they have desk plants or floor plants or no plants…yes my mom and I spend our time wisely…shush.
-The little store in the hotel is convenient, but there is also a CVS pharmacy just down the street a little bit, my mom and I only found this on the 7th day we were there, yes we are sad…once again…shush.
-The internet connection here is NOT Wi-fi even though they say it is, you have to hook up a cord to the modem…and there’s only one cord. It took us a while to get that set-up as mom’s computer didn’t have her LAN settings turned on…and we had little motivation at the time…and it’s also slow and glitch…
-The housekeepers switch out what coffee pot you have every once in a while and may leave you with a broken one…as we found out on the 6th night. Thankfully mom caught so they could bring a new one (right out of the box) to us so she could have her morning brown water…it’s not really coffee just brown water.
-People watching here is like people watching in Disney, you can always go away feeling much better and much more confident then you were before.
-There are LOTS of sirens in D.C.
1st Day: (July 3rd)
-Mom gets up sick, apparently walks downstairs and hurls in the kitchen sink, great start to the morning of our trip.
-Get to the airport at 8 o’ clock and fly to Chicago, after a two hour lay-over, fly to D.C. Screaming children on the Denver- Chicago leg, Chicago- D.C. was relatively quiet. Mom tries to sleep on the first flight no such luck due to screaming child.
-Get to the air port, head to the hotel, and go to bed
2nd Day: (July 4th)
-Recon day; see what’s in the Hotel and what restaurants there are (none), walk down the Mall
-See the 4th of July parade; included all the branches of the U.S. Military, American Indians, Koreans, Vietnamese, Chinese, various school bands, Philippines, and Hare Krishna’s (Mom and I found this befuddling and humorous)
-During the parade my mom noted that there wasn’t a whole lot of English being spoken, lots of Asian though. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, we just kind of found it ironic in a way.
-Go through the National Museum of African Art
-See the Walt Disney- Tishman African Art Collection; displays various treasures including headdresses and ivory carvings
-See the Artful Animals; shows the symbolic meaning of animals in various African tribes
-See the 4th of July fireworks near the Washington Monument; Very cool!! Very loud, and some idiot brought their dog along, as soon as the fireworks started the dog came screaming down the street terrified. Hopefully a cop managed to catch him and calm him down. (And with all the cops there…I think it’d be hard for them not to, but who knows)
-Mom calls Ted for an update of the house and Ted complains about the cats… He’s not used to caring for them so he’s finding out just how hard it is…mom and I have decided that he’s NOT getting a dog if he thinks cats are difficult to take care of. Well, he was in the garage and came into the house. The room you enter from the garage is where the litter box is and apparently Willa was in it, well when Ted came in it scared Willa so she bolted, but she wasn’t quite done…so Ted had to chase Willa around the house picking up shit. Ted can now say he literally scared the crap out of Willa. Poor cat.
-Had a fire truck and a ladder truck pull up to the hotel…nothing happened…but it was interesting to watch
3rd Day: (July 5th)
-Go to the American History Museum
-First Lady’s Hall; displays the first ladies gowns and other various objects (such as combs and purses) they owned
-The Price of Freedom; an exhibit dedicated to the wars America has fought; American Revolution through the War in Iraq
-America on the Move; shows how transportation has changed in America, has the third train built for the Santa Cruz railway
-The original Star-Spangled Banner (it’s HUGE and rather beat-up)
-Julia Child’s kitchen…(yeah…my mom wanted to go…)
-There is also a car from the Disney ride “Dumbo’s Wild Ride”…really rather random…
-The Gunboat Philadelphia, the oldest American fighting vessel
-Popular Culture Selections: Music, Sports, and Entertainment; which displayed various things form sports…not really interested, Music, a lot of old violins and such by Stradivarius, and Entertainment, such as Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch puppets.
-Visit the National Aquarium; kinda lame actually. Lots of little kids, weird species, such as Upside-down Jellyfish (they swim to the bottom and stay there…they look like anemones), Piranhas, Leopard Sharks, and alligators
-Met with Carol (mom’s friend) and had strombolis at a pizza place not too far from the hotel, they chatted and I zoned
4th Day: (July 6th)
-Visit the Holocaust Museum; VERY depressing and in your face.
-Visit the various monuments and memorials via Tourmobile (Which is a bus system that runs up and down the Mall from Union Station down through Arlington Cemetary) Very helpful when you have sore, tired and bruised feet…don’t ask how I managed to bruise the bottom of my foot, I still don’t’ know.
- The Lincoln Memorial, it’s large and crowded but kind of interesting
-FDR memorial; expansive, about 4 square acres-1 for each of his terms- a few waterfalls scattered throughout which are very nice, and lots of sculptures
-Jefferson memorial; similar to Lincoln’s only round and he’s not sitting down…but still crowded
-Korean War memorial; with 19 infantry men from the time coming up the hill and the wall of pictures of not only the deceased but POW’s, MIA’s and those still alive, basically anyone who served
-Vietnam War memorial; the ‘V-shaped’ wall with a list of about 58,000 names of those who died, again in your face
-World War II memorial; starts with a walk-way, on either side is a story of troops (army of air-force) being deployed and fighting then coming home, walk-way ends with a circle of 56 columns (1 for each state, 1 for D.C., and 1 for each U.S. territory) and it ends with Rainbow Pool which is overlooked by 4000 gold stars, 1 star = 100 soldiers who died.
-Walked through security at the Air and Space museum just so we didn’t have to walk around the building…so we walked through the first floor…
5th Day: (July 7th)
-Toured the U.S. Capitol; saw the Rotunda, and the original Senate hall (kinda boring, the Rotunda was cool, the figures are 18 feet tall so they look life size when you look up at them, and saw some of the statues they have there. (Chief Washakie has a statue there…Chief Washakie is from Wyoming and my University has a ‘center building’ dedicated to him)
-In order to get to the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center we had to ask for directions twice, they don’t make it easy to get to and they apparently love to confuse tourists…or in our case travelers (We don’t classify ourselves as tourists…see the General Section below for more explanation on that bit)
-Tried to take the Tourmobile to the Capitol but it didn’t show up in time, so we walked there
-Seeing the Capitol from the outside was cool, the grounds it sits on are massive, they don’t look that big until you start walking on them…oi oi oi, and its uphill too)
-Had lunch at the American Indian Museum, had Fry bread and Buffalo Chili; didn’t actually go through the museum though
-Went to Arlington National Cemetery and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, which is an interesting ceremony and it amazes me…well not amazes me, but baffles me how rude and disrespectful people can be. A girl in front of us took pictures of the graves but she wasn’t even looking at where she was pointing the camera...>< It annoys me when people do that. We don’t have pictures of Arlington just out of respect….it’s a cemetery NOT Disney! During the Changing of the Guard kids were running up and down the stairs and people were shuffling their feet or clacking their high heels…come on people show some respect for the dead and the military guards here! Gah!
6th Day: (July 8th)
-Stayed in the hotel, went up to the pool (which is up on the roof) and sunned a little bit…like we needed that
-Did Absolutely Nothing! (That was the plan actually…so I think it’s safe to say it was a success)
-Ted has an idea! (Mom and I: Ah shit!) For his 50th birthday he wasn’t to go to the Maldives Islands or the Canary Islands…That’s all well and good but the airfare alone on $2,000. He can’t save up $10 let alone $2,000. He has two years to save up that much plus the cost of hotels and food and such. We’ll just let him have his dream…oO; We also learned that Ted does not know how to water plants. Apparently the plant we have hanging outside the front porch, looked a little ‘bleh’, mom asked if the soil was wet and how much he’d been watering it…well, he’s been watering it with a Pepsi glass…nowhere near the amount of water this plant needs…it needs a pitcher full of water…not a Pepsi glass…so I’m going to guess when we get home, the house is going to be trashed (except my room which I cleaned and he doesn’t’ t go in…so unless the cats are partying in there) and the plants are all going to be dead. Izzy got into his bread and ate some of it…no wonder she’s so fat…><
7th Day: (July 9th)
-Rode the Metro to Woodley Park- Zoo, or the National Zoo (The Metro is really easy to navigate…not so easy to get on…people love to butt in front of you and shove you around…but other than that fairly enjoyable.)
-Saw the Giant Pandas which are adorable
-Managed to get the Otters (both) and the lion to yawn and got it on camera
-Sloth bear, fishing cats, which have dinky little tails, red panda, didn’t really see them though they were hidden, bespectacled bear, which are totally cute, a sloth which had crammed itself into a box which was entirely too small for it…I giggled the entire time it was in view. There were lots more and a LOT of people and little children that loved to shove my mom and I around. Rather annoying.
-Finally found the CVS Pharmacy, we have seen a lot of people carrying bags from there but never really found it…we finally did, it’s about half a block from our hotel…if that.
-Ate at McDonalds in the Air and Space Museum…how sad is it when McDonalds is better than any other food options…walked around the first floor…or the part you have to walk through to get to the food court.
-Saw the Russian- U.S. test project, to dock to objects in space together, Apollo-Soyuz. This is back when Russian was the U.S.S.R. It was the last of the Apollo projects and first joint flight of U.S. and Soviet flight projects.
-Also saw the Spirit of Saint Louis, Charles Lindberg’s plane, the first trans-atlantic solo non-stop flight…that’s a mouthful
8th Day: (July 10)
-Went to the Natural History Museum
-Had a scare, saw a HUGE group in front of the building we thought was the Natural History Museum, thankfully it was the one of the art galleries and didn’t have to deal with that group
-Saw the big elephant in front…I didn’t find it all that impressive…looked like a big elephant…
-Went through the Paleontology section, which was interesting. They had a triceratops and a T-rex battling each other with a diplodocus in the middle (not part of the fight scene). Lots of fossils on display, they also had a mummified Long Horned Bison that was freeze dried, the people that found it sewed it together with dental floss to keep it from deteriorating. There was a mummified horse leg too.
-Didn’t bother going into the Hall of Mammals…no interest in seeing stuffed animals.
-Went upstairs to the Hall of Gems and Minerals, first part was pretty boring it explained meteor and asteroids…no pretty gems…there were a few rocks that had some pretty cool designs in them from being super heated and smashed into the earth. Once we got into the gem part it was pretty neat, there were a lot of different gems and minerals on display with all sorts of colors. There were some that glowed neon colors when put under a black light, that was fun to look at.
-We got to look at the Hope Diamond; thankfully we got there early so the crowds were minimal, managed to get a decent picture. The biggest blue diamond in set with 56 (?) diamonds on a platinum chain…talk about over the top and expensive.
-Walked through the Ocean Hall and saw the two giant squids. One was relatively small and the other one was a bit bigger, but apparently had shrunk quite a bit due to it being submerged in embalming fluids…it used to be 36 feet, now it’s about maybe 30-ish feet, disgusting but cool at the same time. They had various eels and a shark embalmed too.
-Got on the Metro and went to the National Geographic Museum
-If you get a chance to go…pass. It’s only one exhibit unless you get a ticket to their special exhibit which takes months. They have the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit now and the next available ticket when we booked the trip would’ve been in November. The free exhibit they had was Lions and Leopards…kind of neat…basically pictures with a few videos…all of which showed Lions and Leopards killing something. I know this happens but I don’t want to watch it…all in all, a big disappointment.
-Came back to the hotel and I conked out and slept for about an two hours or so, then mom wanted to walk to the Mall and get a picture of the Capitol. We took a walk out there and then strolled down the mall and walked through the rose garden near the entrance to the Smithsonian Castle. They have a fairly big collection of different roses, some red, some white, some pink, some were like sunsets and one bush was the color of pale blueberries. We also walked through the Enid A. Haupt Garden and took a lot of pictures. There was another little garden ‘trail’ that we found on the way back to the hotel and walked through there, again lots of pictures, and they had the weirdest and scariest plant I’ve seen yet. The leaves were covered in thorns on the top and the bottom, and the stems were also covered…I’d hate to step on that thing or even have my leg brush against it.
-This was a log ass journal entry…sorry for the rambling…oO; We finally unplugged the stupid fridge as it seems only to be getting louder…
9th Day: (July 11th)
-Went to the National Museum of the American Indian
-No right corners on the building, they’re all circular as it’s a Native American taboo to have right angles
-The door is on the east side of the building, another taboo the builders had to take into consideration as any door the Native Americans had faced East to the rising sun
-Many artifacts from a LOT of different cultures from both South and North America, half from the past and half from the present. It shows how the people live today, instead of how they used to live -There was a pretty nice display for the Chiricahua, the Mescalero Apache, the tribe my mom lived with on the reservation. They also had the Tohono O'odham, the tribe in the Sonoran Desert.
-Went to the Botanical Gardens in the morning, which was nice because a lot of the flowers were in bloom
-Saw a few odd plants…carnivorous…not the Venus Fly Trap but a Pitcher Plant. I never want to touch another plant again…
-Lots of plants from various climates like the jungle and my favorite Desert…lots of cactus
10th Day: (July 12th)
-Lazy day, mainly rode the Tourmobile around, went back to Arlington National Cemetery and visited the Women in Service Museum thing…a tribute to women who served in the army from when they had to dress as men in the Revolutionary War to today. Seems to be focused on the Air Force…
-Stopped at Union Station and had lunch…it’s HUGE! It was like a city within a city. Lots of shops and a food court that looked like it took up the entire lower level…and apparently about 95,000 people go through every day, and only 10,000 go the U.S. Capitol…
-Visited the White House Visiting Center and saw the South side of the White house…my mom and I and hundreds of our closest friends who loved to shove us around
11th Day: (July 13th)
-Got to the airport and one of the flight attendants immediately tried to get us to get on an earlier flight, didn’t really want to due to the fact that we didn’t want to lose our economy plus seats and because we didn’t want to have to wait at DIA for our luggage…(Which was stupid because we’d get to DIA at the same time…) So we got on and had two hours in O’Hare instead of only one, which was nice because we had time to lounge around.
-Got home and the house was messy, the counters were ICKY…and Ted said he had wiped them down the day before…Doe had absolutely NO water WHAT-so-ever…the cat-boxes looked like they hadn’t been scooped in a week…yeah not a great home coming…
In General:
-Tourist- A person, generally in a group, who goes to places to see the highlights or the obvious, but very rarely goes any further into exploring that place. Often rude and without SA, or Situational Awareness, and more likely than is the person walking in front of you as you try to read/ see something, sometimes stopping to read/see it or just stopping. Often reading maps while walking and not paying attention to where they are going…rarely asks for directions. These are the people that annoy us.
-Traveler- Someone who goes to a place to explore all of it, while they do go to popular sites, they often go to some lesser sites and like to explore all around them. They try to have SA, but may occasionally, rarely but it happens, lose it and may walk in front of you, they are the ones saying ‘Excuse me’ and ‘Sorry’ if they walk in front of you unless you piss them off and make them passive aggressive.
-The hotel is NOISY, the fridge loves to makes humming noises and occasionally growl loudly which will stop if you hit or kick it, there’s a railroad track near the hotel so we hear trains come and go. The AC is loud, as in all hotels, it seems to have teamed up with the fridge because as soon as one goes off the other starts…
-There’s a LOT of light. The modem has three lights that are always on, the light that comes through the door to the hallway lights up the room and the alarm clock, which we have covered every night with a towel and museum brochure, it bright enough to land a plane by.
-It’s interesting to watch the worker bee’s go to work, big men in suits with a little brown bag for their lunch or a backpack, which looks silly on a business suit, and it’s also interesting to look into their cubicles to see if they have desk plants or floor plants or no plants…yes my mom and I spend our time wisely…shush.
-The little store in the hotel is convenient, but there is also a CVS pharmacy just down the street a little bit, my mom and I only found this on the 7th day we were there, yes we are sad…once again…shush.
-The internet connection here is NOT Wi-fi even though they say it is, you have to hook up a cord to the modem…and there’s only one cord. It took us a while to get that set-up as mom’s computer didn’t have her LAN settings turned on…and we had little motivation at the time…and it’s also slow and glitch…
-The housekeepers switch out what coffee pot you have every once in a while and may leave you with a broken one…as we found out on the 6th night. Thankfully mom caught so they could bring a new one (right out of the box) to us so she could have her morning brown water…it’s not really coffee just brown water.
-People watching here is like people watching in Disney, you can always go away feeling much better and much more confident then you were before.
-There are LOTS of sirens in D.C.
First Blog
Hey! This is my first blog, who knows what I'll put up here. I know I have a list of stuff I'm going to put up, mainly vacation journals and things of that variety. I'll probably also post updates on my new college life. I just moved in today. Going to the University of Wyoming and hoping to major in something related to art, preferably Graphic Design, but we'll see how things go. Anyway, the first few blogs I'm going to post are going to be a little on the long side.
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