D.C. Revisited

(Honest Abe posing for the Camera, 2/5/2011)

It was a crazy time. So crazy I still haven't had a change to really write about it...but now that I have a lot of school work to finish I've found a few lines.

Being surrounded by 10,000 people who are just as strange and awkward as you are is overwhelming (to say the least).

Finding panels you want to attend is easy, getting to them in time is another story. But I was able to see a few awesome authors including Joyce Carol Oates, Junot Diaz, and Mr. Richard Bausch (who has a new website).

I learned the ends and outs of riding/taking the Metro. I wish I would've taken a photo of an escalator "ride" at Dupont Circle. Talk about VERTIGO!

But as you "leave" the darkness and enter the light via the escalator (north entrance) you're greeted by Walt Whitman lines:

Thus in silence in dreams' projections,

Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals;

The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,

I sit by the restless all the dark night - some are so young;

Some suffer so much - I recall the experience sweet and sad,...

By the end of the trip, we realized that four people in one Taxi was similar in price...plus the "cabbies" were 100% awesome, knowledgeable, and friendly!

Apparently we (as a group) crave Mediterranean food, because that's what we always wanted to eat--not only delicious, but affordable.

Wearing "new" shoes and walking all over the city then all over the conference hotel does still equal the largest, most painful blisters. You're lucky I didn't take any pictures of them.

The only day we had time to sight see, it was misty. I couldn't even get a picture of the top of the Washington Monument. The dampness and starkness made the D.C. seem ghostly, which is very appropriate.

Despite the rain, we were able to find and sample six different cupcakes at Georgetown Cupcake. They are heavenly. No, really. I'm not kidding or JUST saying that. My personal favorite? Coconut was to die for...

Oh yeah, and all of the people who have said I would love D.C. were right. It's my favorite "district" in the entire country!

~~J