Tuesday, September 1, 2009

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.~~John F. Kennedy

Today has been jam-packed, and so worth every blister on my feet :) I started the day with taking the subway all by myself (just like a big girl) to meet up with Ricky, Thea, Rick and Marty at the Oxford House, Inc. headquarters. Melissa has an uncle in the area that she hasn't seen since she was 5, so he picked her up from our hotel and they went and did their own thing. Public transit I must say is SOOOOO much better than any other metropolitan area that I have attempted to navigate. I already feel like I can navigate the subway with ease... for the most part ;-D. Anyways-- at the office I was given a tour by a really nice lady who has been working for Oxford for quite a while. She received the position when she was 3 months clean, not even knowing the company she would be working for, or what it was all about. If that's not a god shot, I don't know what is!! Once I had a quick run-through, everyone in the office was leaving to go set up for our conference so we decided it was sightseeing time. We picked up 2 more members to our 'crew' at the office's-- they were from Texas.One thing I thought was really cool while riding Metro was that in some tunnels--between stops--there would be fluorescent posters covering the entire walls that were posted side by side to eachother. With the train whooshing by these sets of graphic's it would appear as a quick video-- like a commercial, for whatever was being advertised. When I first saw them I thought the window's had turned into t.v. screens.... what a trip!
Our first stop was Chinatown--And Thea and I have both agreed that we will probably be going back before the end of our vacay. We stopped in for some Dim Sum at Tony Cheng's.... and I allowed Thea order everything for us and I would try everything at least once before I passed food critic judgement. There were some very interesting foreign dishes sitting in front of me. Some of the things I could stomach, and some of them I couldn't. I found that if the texture was odd for me, then no matter what the taste, it just didn't feel right when I swallowed. When we left there I introduced Rick and Ricky to Thai Coffee, where we got some to-go. It was delicious and perfect for while we were walking in the sun.
Everyone decided they wanted to go walk "the mall" next. So that was where we headed. We got off at the famous "Union Station" which is right down the road from the hotel our convention is at-- and where I will be moving on Thursday night. Union Station was beautiful inside and out, with more statues and carvings then I could've imagined.We stopped in at their hotel first, which was on the way to "the mall", because Ricky's sandal had broken and he was walking with one bare foot. While we were in the hotel I mentioned that "hey at least where we're going there will be plenty of new flip-flop's for you to buy" when everyone turned and looked at me like I was crazy. They asked if I realized that we weren't going to a shopping mall.... but rather the mall that is the big grass field and dirt track that stretches 2 miles between the Capitol Building and The Washington Monument. LOL...... soooooo this is what I was referring to in my Day 2 blog.... and I informed them that I most definitely knew what they were talking about NOW. So out we walked towards these landmarks. We found the Capitol Building first and it was stunning, so huge and vivid! I took plenty of pictures and then of course I couldn't resist snapping some picture's of the guards with the huge machine guns... my favorite shot is where the guard with the gun half his body length is holding a bag of food and munching on it... our tax dollars hard at work :) I proceeded to snap as many picture's as I could until all of a sudden the camera screen went black. I couldn't get it to turn back on. So my natural response was that I was out of batteries.... and had a momentary mental breakdown! There was still so much to see and I couldn't document any of it!! (As a side note I would like to inform you how pathetic this situation really was-- After purchasing more batteries from the first store I found which was nowhere near the great scenery I discovered that the batteries had been fine... I had accidentally changed the camera view to the little lens instead of the video screen. DOH)The rest of the day went "unpictured" and I had to dip out from sightseeing early for a little job interview business. I wasn't home for more than and hour and half before I set back out on Metro to meet up with the gang at the Hyatt. We ate at Billy Goat's Tavern and Grill since it was one of the only open places by the hotel. And now I am trying to nurse my feet and legs back to life. I look forward to another exciting day tomorrow. I feel like I have cut a lot of this short, but there is just not enough time in my day to sightsee AND blog as in detail as I would prefer.

love and miss u all. XOXO

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