And I’m back!
I’d really like to write about the trip, but my travel journal is missing, sorta. I mean, it’s there, but only sorta. So I’ll wait til the domain-transfer and reconfiguration process are complete. And here I was thinking this internet was easy! Our Nation’s Capitol was, well, something. You see, it’s east coast, so I think, EAST COAST! And I forget about the south part. It’s totally south of the Mason-Dixon line. DC is too preoccupied with money and politics and interest groups to be cultured and artsy, or to even have good shopping, at the bare minimum. I did a lot of shopping, which meant like three different H&Ms*, none of which had Scotty’s hoodie at all. Sigh. I spent a lot of money at this Japanese gift shop in Dupont Circle. I managed to find some good falafel a couple times. I went to the new Air & Space annex (awesome) and the Hirschhorn and botanical gardens, which suck for having removed their zen garden. The Spy Museum ruled; my favorite part was when I got to climb through an air duct in the ceiling. Apart from and amongst that stuff, I walked. It’s what I do. For about 8 hours on both Thursday and Friday, and lesser amounts of time after that, when I discovered that Vans aren’t made for walkin’. It was fucking cold out there. It was like the same temperature as here, but windy and that damp near-water cold. I spent three days the bright pink of a spring-breaker in Daytona Beach because of windburn, and I learned the very literal meaning of ‘freezing my ass off’. There were times I wondered how I could still be moving when I couldn’t feel my limbs at all. Hopefully soon I will have some typing on runawaytruck.com for you, and some photos as well! It was not so great to get back to work, but I did write some badass code involving PDF-rendering and saving, which reminds me of just how very easy it is to write viruses. I thought that technology was supposed to be beyond that by now, but no. Huge vulnerabilities. Yuck. I’ve been meaning to mention this forever: the do campaign. I kept seeing these billboards with little blurbs about being more active. The messages and design are great, and it took me way too long to track down this site. (Maybe put it on the billboards? Just a thought). Anyway, I really like this campaign. It’s aimed at adults over 30, trying to get them moving. Here’s the state’s website about the program as well. I think the first line says it all: Physical inactivity and diet combined are the second-leading causes of preventable death and disease in the United States. Also, this is the second good thing that a health insurance company ever did, the first being the $20-a-month discount on health club memberships. Which unfortunately only applies if you have health insurance. Sigh again. One thing I had forgotten about apartment-living is that you accumulate more clothes. This is due to the fact that laundry is a pain in the ass. Since it’s $3/load in my building and the dryers don’t work very well, I exercise two options: if I’m out running around, going to the Y and such, I take my laundry to my house in Richfield. If I want free dinner and to sit around knitting, I take it to my mom’s. Since it had already been a while and then I went on a trip, I now have such a giant bag of laundry in the back seat of Chico that I had to shift it around so I could see out the rear window. I’m reduced to wearing the way-too-big jeans (uncomfortably scrunched with a belt around the hips) and gym socks. Tonight I will wash it all, drive it home, and lug it back up to my home a la laundry sherpa. Which is the other thing about apartment-living: all of a sudden, it’s like you grew a few more arms, rather than have to make another trip. I have more things, but it seems most of them involve photodocumentary evidence, and I’m quite Photoshopless at work. Therefore I will defer those, and wish you a very good afternoon. Jenni * Once Minneapolis has H&M and Trader Joe’s, we will officially have all the good shopping here.