DCraig

DC and Craig (DCraig) -- that's what this past weekend was about. My friend of 21 years came down from NYC to visit little ol' lonely me. And boy, we had a blasty blast.

Friday - I went to pick him up from the bus stop Friday night around 10:45pm. I got there just as his bus pulled in, and we tracked each other down and greeted each other. We then drove back to my apartment. Craig was amazed by the size of the apartment and especially the fact that he had his own room with his own bathroom. He also liked the kitchen size and the fact that I had an oven. Ha! Since it was already late, we decided to just chill and watch a movie. While Craig unpacked his bags, he gave me a birthday present. When I opened it, it was the first two seasons of One Tree Hill (OTH). I was shocked by the gift because we really haven't gotten each other a gift for each other's birthdays in years (we typically just take the other person out for food...which is our favorite thing anyway). So that was super cool. He had wrapped the DVDs with paper from his workplace, and he drew a bowtie on it. :)

Saturday - Saturday morning we woke up at about 9am and got ready for the day. We first hit up the Fashion Center at Pentagon City (which is typically referred to as the Pentagon City Mall). There, we decided to eat "breakfast." I put that in quotes because what we ate could've easily been dinner. We both had these huge steak sandwiches. After eating that, I thought I wouldn't eat until nighttime.

We then checked out some places in the mall, mainly the Apple store for Craig's benefit. After browsing for a bit, we went back to my apartment where I went down to the main office to get my gift from Katie and her family. Her parents bought me a very cool, casual Fossil watch, and Katie and the sibs bought me a very clean, elegant Fossil watch. That was sweet of them since the burglars jacked all my watches several weeks ago. So I was touched by that. From there, we took the car and drove to Alexandria. I sort of got lost and didn't really have any place in particular to take him. We *did*, however, decide to go to T.C. Williams High School. I posted a blog on going to the Titans football field, but now I got to go with Craig and Craig's massive camera equipment. Man, he hauled all his camera equipment around the entire time there, and it was cool to watch him in photographer action. We walked on the field, and he took lots of pics. One of those pics is shown below.

After driving around a bit more, we got back to my apartment. We were planning on going to Ted Kennedy's burial which was set for 4-5pm. So before we did, we both wanted to eat. Ha! I didn't think that after the kind of breakfast we ate that we'd be wanting to eat again in less than 3 hours. Sure enough we did. This time we went to Baja Fresh where Craig had a monster burrito, and I had mahi mahi fish tacos. After eating, we went back to the apartment to figure out what to do in the mean time before Kennedy's burial. We ended up both having major food coma, and we didn't want to move. So we popped in some OTH, Craig edited some pics, and we just lounged.

Around 3:15 or so, we decided to get to Arlington Cemetery. We took the Metro there, and on the way there I dropped my watches off to get some links removed. I got totally ripped off, too. I don't want to talk or even write about it. When we got to Arlington Cemetery, we saw a lot of TV News vans prepping for their live feed of the motorcade. We also saw these three crazy protestors who were claiming the name of Jesus, but they were saying things like "Kennedy's in Hell" and "God hates gays" and stuff like that. That really irked me to the core. When people were fighting with them, these "Christians" would cuss and stuff, too. One calm, Christian guy from the crowd went to one of them and basically schooled him on the gospel.

Anyway, Craig and I walked up and down Memorial Bridge. It was scorching hot, too. We tried to find shade as much as possible. At one point, Craig was awestruck. He saw a photographer with this enormous lens (which I thought was a telescope it was so big) that Craig said was worth about $12,000. Eek!! Anyway, as we kept walking back-and-forth (and the crowd wasn't even gathered too much by that point), we overheard someone saying that the body probably wouldn't get there until about 7pm. It was only about 4pm by this time. So we debated and debated whether to stay or go. We were both hungry again, too. Ha-ha! We were craving Five Guys burgers. After much back-and-forth and hearing different people's stories as to when the motorcade would show up, we decided to hang in there. 4pm slowly became 5pm. We had to open Craig's umbrella to get some shade since it was so hot. 5pm slowly became 6pm. We found a new spot to stand, and by now the crowd was huge but scattered everywhere. We also started to mingle with the old couple next to us. They enjoyed yapping with us. Between 6 and 7 we kept hearing different stories again. Some people said the body landed in Andrews Air Force Base, others said that he was already at the Capitol Building. We were getting antsy and fed up. Originally we had decided to leave by 5:30 if nothing happened. Then we pushed it to 6pm. Then 6:30. Then we just said, "Forget it. We've invested all this time already. We're seeing it through."

Dad kept texting me, giving me updates as to what was really happening as he watched the news from back home. Finally, the first wave of police cars went through. Craig decided to cross the street to get a better shot, and I stayed back. Craig encountered some punk guy who was giving him a hard time about how Craig shoots with his camera. Craig was not happy with him, and eventually the dumb guy left. The old couple we were bonding with ended up crossing the street, too, and they kept Craig company as they all 3 chatted away. After many MANY more minutes, around 7:30pm the cops stopped all traffic and the motorcade was seen in the distance over the bridge near Lincoln Memorial.

As the cavalry came by, they were driving really slowly. We then saw the hearse that Kennedy's coffin was in. We could see the coffin in the back with the U.S. flag draped over it. I took pics with my iPhone, and Craig took lots of pics with his camera. Following the hearse were several SUVs and limos. One SUV had John Kerry in it. He was literally about 10 feet from me. His window was down all the way as he was waving to the public. It was weird to see Kerry that close.

After all the vehicles had left, Craig crossed the street back to my side, and we both looked at each other and said, "Five Guys?" So we booked it to the Metro where there were a billion people there. Luckily we caught the first train back to Pentagon City. I first picked up my watches. Then we quickly went outside to Best Buy. Craig ended up also buying me season 3 of OTH, and I bought season 4 and 5. Ha! Craig needed to use the bathroom at Best Buy, and I said, "I don't think they have them here." Craig saw a sign and said, "Ah yes! Banos [the Spanish word for bathrooms]." As soon as he said that, a black guy that worked there goes, "Banos? Si, es alli [Bathrooms? Yes, it's over there]." LOL! He thought Craig was Mexican. We were thirsty and starving by this point, and of course, it took forever to checkout of Best Buy. There were only two people in front of us, but they took forever to purchase their item. Craig yells, "I'm sweating!" with his high-pitched voice, and the lady in front of us started to crack up. :) Anyway, after that we FINALLY got to drive to Five Guys. We had only been craving it for 5 hours by this point. We grabbed our food and started to drive back. On the drive back we ended up laughing harder than I could remember. I mean my stomach and throat were hurting so bad after it because for several minutes straight, we were both laughing incredibly hard. Craig had tears coming down his face. I guess you'd have to be there and also know how Craig and I laugh at the exact same things and have the same sense of humor, but it all started when my car started to flash "Trunk Ajar." Craig had put his camera equipment in the trunk, but it did not close all the way. So as I was driving on the highway, I kept telling Craig to get out at the next red light and shut it quickly. As I was driving, we must've hit about 30 traffic lights, and all of them were GREEN. Every time we saw a red light in the distance, as we approached it, it would turn green. Also at that point, two cars almost hit us and as I swerved them both, we both gave these long, girlish screams. ALSO, we drove past this black neighborhood where some cops were arresting people, and Craig was like, "Drug bust!" So all of those things at the same time meshed into hysteria.

When we got home, we scarved down our food, and eventually called it a night.

Sunday - Sunday morning we got up at 8am per Craig's request. He wanted to get to the cemetery early to take pics of Ted Kennedy's gravesite, and he also had never seen the eternal flame over JFK's site. So we spent several hours on Sunday at the cemetery. Craig took a ton of pics. We got to the Kennedy gravesites (Robert, John, and Ted). One guy had some massive camera equipment, and this cop drives practically in the middle of Ted Kennedy's site, parks all crooked, gets out, and yells at the guy for not having a Press Pass. The guy was like, "These are just my cameras. I'm not press." LOL!

Craig and I kept walking. We ended up checking out the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Craig videotaped a lot of it. It was great, but it was bloody hot! I almost passed out from heat exhaustion. Craig was drenched in sweat. Nasty hot day. Eventually we headed back. We took the Metro to the Pentagon where Craig and I walked around to the Pentagon Memorial. He took pics of the memorial along with the Pentagon. From there we went to Crystal City to...guess what...eat! We went to Potbelly Sandwiches and had a monster sandwich. It put us in a food coma again. We almost got ice cream at Cold Stone later, but I couldn't stomach it. Well, I might've been able to handle ice cream, but we wanted to get Red Velvet Cake. That would've just killed me right there.

After eating, we headed back to the apartment to relax and rest with a pit stop at the mall again to look at the Gap, Banana Republic, Apple store, and an Outdoors Sports store (much like REI). At the apartment, Craig took a nap, and I was laid out on the couch. My knees were killing me from all the walking. I think I hurt it the most back at the Pentagon when we were trying to catch the train. I had got through the gate with my Metro card. Craig attempted to follow, but there were insufficient funds on his card (he needed an extra buck or so). We saw that the train was arriving in 1 minute which was why we were bummed, because Craig had to go get more money on his card, and the next train would be in 10 minutes or so. So Craig went to get more money on his card, the train arrived, and I was like, "Okay, we can handle 10 more minutes." Just then, Craig is literally running and yelling, "Joe. Go, go!" He apparently got the money quickly, he got through the gate, and we both booked it down the escalators to try and catch the train that was just about to leave. We made it! We got in the train just as the doors were closing. But then I realized I hurt my knee. :(

Anyway, after resting for a while, it was about 4pm. I had to drop Craig off at the bus stop by 5pm. We decided to go downstairs...and eat! Of course. But we decided to eat light, since 1. We were still full from the Potbelly sandwiches, and 2. There was a cool looking Crepe restaurant that we wanted to check out. We went with the mentality to get some sweet crepes, but we both ended up ordering humungous steak and pork dinners. Ha-ha. So much food. Like I said, Craig and I like to eat. After eating, we got in my car, got lost for a minute and panicked for a second as we thought the worst was about to happen (that we wouldn't get Craig to the bus in time), but luckily we got ourselves back on track. I dropped him off, and that was that.

Unfortunately, the only pics of Craig and me on this adventure (from his camera) was the one pic of me shown earlier and a pic of Craig that I took as he was smiling, coming out of the bathroom. :) But Craig took some amazing pics that he will be posting here shortly.

Thank you for reading about my fun weekend with Craig. Now please go check out Craig's blog which will have some pics throughout the week.

http://rockstaradonis.blogspot.com/


Some pics from my iPhone

Craig looking angry that I'm taking a pic of him

Ted Kennedy inside the hearse


John Kerry's SUV. He's waving. Craig's across the street not paying attention


JFK's Eternal Flame

Craigy's In Town

After two weeks of loneliness (although I had a good time or two with Matthew), my good friend, Craig, is coming to town. I'm picking him up from the bus stand in about 3 hours. I can't wait. Every time we get together, two things happen: 1. We eat more food than our stomachs can handle, and 2. We burn off those calories by laughing harder than ever. I love it when Craig and I get together because it's always unique, and we always come up with a new inside joke. In fact, we already began to call Saturdays "Faturdays" because we always eat so much on the weekends together. Ha!

Things we plan on seeing: Ted Kennedy coming to Arlington, Georgetown, JFK Memorial, T.C. Williams High School (for Craig to take cool pictures), Pentagon, and more. Can't wait!! Hopefully the stupid rain doesn't create a roadblock for us. Dumb Tropical Storms in the Atlantic.

That's What Breaks Are For

Oh, man! I have a story to share with you. I know Nisha will respect the storytelling (thanks, Nishk). This happened during my break today at work.

Around 10am or so, I was ready to take my first 15 minute break of the day. Sometimes I go outside and pray on a bench overlooking the water. Today I chose to go back to my car where my cell phone was (since I can't bring it in) and look over my texts and emails.

Now before the story begins, let me paint you a picture of the layout. In fact, I'm so bored these days that I took the liberty of drawing it for you all. Take a look at the drawing below. Don't mind the dashed lines for now, that will come later. (Sorry, it turned out blurry) Now, the parking garage is huge (the light green building). It's 6 levels high, and I always park at the upper level which is the rooftop. Note, however, that by 7:30am, the entire lot is full. I woke up late once, got in about 8am, and I ended up looking for parking forever. I had to park on the side street several blocks away, and it was only 2 hour parking, so I'd have to go out there every 2 hours to move my car. So annoying.

Anyway, so I walked from my building (Bldg 201--the blue building at the bottom) and headed to the parking garage. I went up the elevators to the 6th floor rooftop, and I got in my car to look at my phone. Since by 10am it's already about 85 degrees and muggy, I had the windows rolled down. I was there for about 5 minutes when all of a sudden I heard two cars honking their horns, and this black woman yelled, "I was here first!"

Immediately I turned to look what was happening. I had a perfect view of this whole incident. Two cars were half in and half out of ONE parking spot. The spot was directly straight if you are heading up the ramp, so my guess was the guy in the Volkswagen didn't see the woman from the right side with her turn signal on. That's why he bolted when the original car left the spot, and that's what brought on this whole confrontation.

So I'm just sitting there watching this. I could've gotten out and confronted them both, but since I didn't actually see what happened, I'd be useless. Furthermore, I wouldn't know who to get for help, let alone I kept thinking if I went for help, by the time someone got there, the whole thing would have been blown over. Boy was I ever wrong. I literally sat in my car in the heat to see what would happen. NEITHER car budged. They just put their cars in park, raised their hands to each other every once in a while (as if saying, "Come on!"), and never got out. I kid you not, people, I sat in the car for twenty whole minutes (yes, I overextended my break. Stop worrying, I didn't take an afternoon break to make up for it. Believe me it was worth it).

I just sat there laughing at these two child-like adults, wondering who would eventually act their age and finally move. Nope, wasn't going to happen this day. Both were too stubborn to just back away and let the other take the spot. At one point, I noticed the black woman was on her phone. I figured she was calling the police or something. I had no idea. Seriously though, nobody moved. I kept saying to myself, "Someone HAS to move. Who will it be?"

Around the 20th minute or so, these two big brothers start walking up the ramp to the rooftop. My guess is that the woman called these gentlemen because they went straight to the woman. I tried to listen to what they were saying, but I was too far to hear. All I know is that at one point, both brothers turned to look at the dude in the Volkswagen, and they did not look happy. I had my camera phone ready just in case they decided to break through this guy's window and pummel him. (Note: the camera phone would've done no good anyway. I tried to take a picture earlier, but there's no zoom, so it doesn't come out properly. And yes, I wanted to take a picture for the sole purpose of posting it on my blog...ha ha!).

Eventually the two guys turned around and started heading back down the ramp to where I'm assuming they got on the 5th floor elevator to head down. Since I had spent a good deal of time away from my desk, I figured it was time to head back, so I got out of my car and took the 6th floor elevator down to the ground floor.

Now this is where you can see the drawing below and the dashed lines will explain some routes. I got to the main floor and started walking back toward my building (green line). As I did, I noticed the two black guys walking in front of me (red line). I sped up a little to hear what they were discussing. At that moment though, a police vehicle pulled into the parking garage (blue line). One of the black guys just starts yelling, "HEY!!" Then they both started to run after the police (nature in reverse--ha!--that was racist, sorry.) People walking around were sort of freaked out because they were really loud and adamant. I was the only one who knew what they were doing. They were going to tell the police to drive to the top floor to deal with the incident.

I turned left to head toward my building. When I got to the main doors, I hesitated (white circle in the middle of the green line path). "Man, I really want to see what happens. I invested too much time to not see the outcome." At the last second, I decided to continue in a loop and head right back to the parking garage. I felt like a total white guy (i.e. most white people will want to see what's going on when either danger or confrontation is imminent, and brown people are usually smart enough to turn around and run away without hesitation or question).

I jumped back into the elevator and got to the 6th floor. While the doors opened, I saw a lady standing there staring at the scene. There were 3 or 4 cop cars at this point. I think the driver of the Volkswagen was in the middle of about 6 cops, yelling about the situation. The cops were scolding the guy. In the meantime, the cops had let the black lady park her car in the spot. About this time, some of the cops turned and looked my direction. I didn't want them to think I was simply there to check out the scene, so I just turned around and finally headed back to my desk (after my 30+ minute break!). :)

Anyway, I just thought that was a funny story. I can't believe two adults just sat there in their cars doing nothing, leaving their cars half in and half out of a parking spot. I mean seriously? Are you that stubborn to just give the spot to someone else? I guess that's what happens when the parking lot gets full and there's really no other free place to park close by. Also at one point, I saw the woman recline her driver seat back and sort of lounge. Wow!

And I know, I should've done more to help out rather than to sit back and laugh at them. I seriously thought about telling one of them they could have my spot while I go park on 2 hour side street parking again. But you know what, whatever happens in D.C. stays in D.C. (or in my blogs). :)

If you learned nothing else in this posting, take with you the fact that you ought to take your work breaks. Anything can happen.

(Key: Yellow and gray buildings are irrelevant. The gray building, by the way, is the NCIS building -- people might have watched the show. South of my building is Anacostia River. Between my building and the parking garage is another building that I need to walk around)

Different Matters

First of all, thank you everyone for the birthday shoutouts. I appreciate it. I love my family and friends. You are my life.

Also, today marks my good friend, Craig's, two year anniversary in New York City. We all thought Craigy would be a westcoaster for life, but his calling was out east. I miss him big time back home, but since I'm out here in D.C., Craig is coming to visit me this weekend. I can't wait. And hopefully when Katie gets in town in 3 weeks time, we can go out and visit Craig in NYC. Cheers, bro.

Lastly, my friend, Matt, who's lived here since right around my wedding day took me out for my birthday last Sunday. We went to Mike's Restaurant & Crab House. It was sensational. We had some delicious snow crab legs. It was quite a mess at our table, but it was super fun. Quite the experience. Thanks, Matt, for taking me out!

Remember the Titans

Yesterday after church, since I was in Alexandria, I felt it necessary to visit good ol' T.C. Williams High School. For those who don't know, T.C. Williams High School was the school that was responsible for the making of the movie "Remember the Titans" with Denzel Washington. It is one of my favorite football movies, so I felt I had to visit. It was cool to step foot on the field and the Titans scoreboard in the distance. Anyway, here are some pics of the school.

Dad's Revenge

Dad went back and used his cell phone camera for the first time ever to capture the death of the mole. He even added a funny comment as he sent it to me last night. It took him a while to figure out how to send a picture from his cell phone to me, but he figured it out all by himself. Neat pic. I hate to admit, but I actually leaped for joy to see this thing dead. I only wish I could be there in person.

Vermin

Kudos today goes to my wonderful father. Thanks, dad, for all your help around my house since I've been gone. I thank you especially for taking care of my precious lawn that I worked really hard at this year. The biggest props goes out to him because of what he did today. For the past two months, Katie and I have had a mole infestation at our house. It could be one mole, it could be a family. But every few days or so, we'd get a new mound of dirt in our lawn. Thankfully, the mole's tunnel is just on the edges of the lawn, so the middle section is totally fine.

I've tried several times (even with the help of Sid) to flush this mole out. We'd put hoses through the holes and crank the water up. No luck. Well, today, my dad just about had it with the mole, too. He shoved a hose in one of its holes, and within a few moments, he saw the mole begin to claw its way out of another hole. When it reached the surface, I'm guessing it had already swallowed some water because my dad informed me that it was just laying there. He took the hose and gave it a good whack!! Finally, the mole is DEAD!! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!! Thank you, dad. You've done what many people have failed to do--flush out a mole. Thank you and congrats. I only wished my father took a picture of the sucker. All I have instead is a picture of Bill Murray in "Caddyshack" trying to take out the gopher with the same tactic. :)

1st Assembly of God

Today I attended a new church in Alexandria, VA. It's a First Assembly of God church, and it was very awesome. The pastor is a young guy (age 38) who is extremely hilarious yet delivers the Word with a powerful punch. The music resembled something from UGen/C20s from Westgate Chapel. We sang "I Know Who I Am," "Cover the Earth," "Mighty to Save," "I Receive Your Love (from Israel Houghton's new CD)," "Lord, I'm Amazed by You (which Emily sung at Katie and my wedding)," "Amazing Love," and "Heart of Worship."

Today's sermon was on hope. We went through 1 Sam 4:1-11. The pastor used some good analogies, good everyday material, and even played a little video to discuss what hope is all about. It was a great service indeed. Next Sunday there'll be the normal service in the morning, and then at 6pm there will be a worship night which I'm looking forward to as well. (above: picture taken from my iPhone; below: picture taken from Google Images)

Five Guys

I'm surprised I lasted an entire week without eating at Five Guys burgers. If you've never had their burgers, you are missing out, my friends. Five Guys was solely an east coast chain even up to a few years ago. But alas, they have brought Five Guys to the west coast. There is currently one in Renton, WA, and I believe one in Northgate is opening up soon. I mean, just look at the picture below...who wouldn't want to take a nice bite out of that juicy, sloppy, messy, greasy burger? It's like heaven between two warm buns.

Anyway, today I finally broke my streak and cracked down. I went to Five Guys in Alexandria (where I used to live). I almost ordered large fries because the last time I had their fries was in Renton, and apparently in Renton, they don't do my favorite thing about Five Guys. In the east coast, they will give you your fries, but then they will also take another shovel heap of fries and throw it in the bag, too. So because I remembered that, I ordered regular fries. Sure enough, the lady gave me regular fries, but then she took TWO huge shovel scoops extra and threw it in the bag. It was so much that I couldn't even finish. And don't even get me started on that burger. It was so delicious! Afterwards, however, I felt gross. I have been cooking and eating healthy all week. So I punished myself for eating poorly and hit the gym extra hard today. After that, I pretty much couldn't move for the rest of the day. So I've pretty much been lounging ever since. It doesn't help also that it's pouring down buckets over here. I think that might have to do with the fact that Hurricane Bill is just sitting a hundred miles off the coast.

So, even though Katie had granted me ONE visit to Five Guys per week while I am out here (previously when living here I must've gone on average at least 3 times a week), I think that might be my last visit for a long time. Cottage cheese, fruits, and yogurt have now become my buddies. :)

Nationals No Go

Yesterday our workplace was having a big "party" day. After work, there was going to be hot dogs and drinks served at the Yard, and then everyone was going to go walk down to the Nationals stadium to watch the baseball game. Matt and I were planning to go until Wednedsay night. We saw that there was going to be a lot of rain, and I would hate baseball in the rain (I say "would" because thankfully I live in Seattle where there has never been a canceled game due to rain). Anyway, I began to not feel up for it. Plus it was $20, and who wants to pay that much to see the worst team in the MLB? So I opted not to go, and Matt agreed. Turned out that yesterday was a beautiful day. I'm not sure about the results of the game, but I am kind of sad now that I didn't go. :( Oh well.

Instead, I went to the gym with Matt. He brought his friend from church, Phil. Phil was a gym trainer, so he was going to train us. However, I wanted to lift before running and they wanted the exact opposite. That turned out to be a good move on my part because Phil is a gym nazi! Oh man, I thought Emmi was bad when he trained me. I thought Matt was going to die. They practically SPRINTED for 20 straight minutes. Then he made Matt do some of the most grueling ab workouts I've ever seen. I almost threw up just watching them. I was content with my dumbbell curls and jog-sprints on the treadmill. :)

West Virginia and a Pal

Well yesterday after work, I took a little road trip. My friend from San Diego (who got married a month before me and moved to Boise) was out in Shepherdstown, West Virginia for the week for a conference. He is a U.S. Marshall, and he said that their “stations” are always in remote locations. Shepherdstown was more than remote. It makes Duvall or Gold Bar look ritzy. However, there were some cool parts of the town.

Anyway, the drive there took 2 hours. Under light traffic conditions it should take about an hour and a half. But luckily I caught some traffic because when I arrived at the Carrion Hotel where Mark was at, he didn’t pick up his phone when I called. He texted me shortly after I had left a voice message (which probably sounded panicked since I didn’t want to think that I drove all the way out there for nothing). He was still in his meeting. So he got out about 5 minutes after I got there. If there weren’t traffic, I would’ve had to wait for 35 minutes. So that was good.

Driving through Shepherdstown looks like a bunch of farm fields. It’s this little Podunk town. However, it had some of the coolest rolling hills that I’ve seen and driven across. I felt like I was in a rollercoaster. When I was a mile from the hotel, I could only imagine what kind of ghetto place they were staying at. But lo and behold, I turned a corner and out of nowhere is this one HUGE hotel. It isn’t super nice by a long shot, but the sheer size of it caught me off guard, especially with what a small, little town it’s in.

Anyway, Mark and I got together and found a Bavarian restaurant that we checked out. It was somewhat fancy, and the outside was like this little cottage house (rustic and old) which looked antique but nice (I dare not say “cute”). We had dinner and talked about anything and everything. Afterwards we went back to his hotel and hung out a bit and chatted more. Then we parted ways.

The trip back was an adventure. I was heading back the same way I headed in. I missed my turn though (GPS confused me), but that only cost me a minute. I got back on the main road shortly after cutting through a road which went through some corn fields. Then I got close to a traffic light which led to the highway. On the way to the traffic light, a car was flashing its lights at all the cars heading that way. I thought, “This can’t be good.” Sure enough, there was a huge back up on this one lane highway. People were pulling U-Turns and heading away. I was curious, so I waited a bit more. I couldn’t see what the hold up was, but I *did* see a cop at the end talking to each person (probably giving them directions) and telling them to turn around. So I pulled a U-turn.

GPS guided me a different direction, but I had to do it manually because it kept wanting me to go back to the same road. Heading the other way, there was a little slow down again and another bunch of cops were there. Nothing too bad though. I finally found the main freeway and got on that. The roundabout cost me 30 or so minutes. But at least I was heading home. Then I was heading south towards home (about an hour away) when the freeway lanes went from 4 to 2 due to construction. Ugh! So it was BACKED UP. I immediately exited and hoped GPS could help me. Sometimes GPS is stupid and wants me to keep going somewhere I don’t want to go. So again I manually directed myself, using GPS as a simple roadmap at this point. After driving south on an off-road parallel to the traffic jam for about 10 minutes, I figured it was good enough to get back on the freeway. Well, I missed my turn twice. So I kept trying to get on but couldn’t. Then when I finally found the turn to get to the freeway, I turned, and there was a train crossing. Ugh! I gave a sarcastic clap and sarcastic “Yes!” I waited for several minutes there. But finally I was on the freeway again, and the rest of the ride was smooth. Total time: 2 hrs. 30 minutes. I was supposed be home an hour earlier. Oh my life!!

Weather

Two nights ago after I blogged, I realized that I needed to make a quick run to the grocery store. The grocery store is less than 2 minutes walking from my place. After I had bought everything I needed, I walked outside. The air smelled musky and the black clouds above me did not look promising. I then felt a drop of rain. Then I felt a few more. It was like that for the first 30 seconds out of the store. But then, as if the heavens above opened up and a flowing river came crashing down on us, it began to POUR. It was crazy. For the next minute, I got soaked from head to toe.

D.C. has some crazy weather for sure. It's super hot and muggy, and it pours rain from time to time. The same scenario happened yesterday at work, too. However, for the grocery run I was in my sweats, but at work I had my nice work clothes on. I bring my umbrella to work everyday because you just never know. However, I left it at my desk when I went to go outside to cross the street to the other building. Little did I know I'd need it. It was a very light drizzle on the way to the other building; on the way back it was a downpour. My nice clothes got wet. And of course I wore contacts everyday up to this point except for yesterday’s downpour. So my glasses were wet, too. When a few guys got off the elevator, they saw me, kept walking, and said to each other, "It must be raining out there." Ugh.

Apparently there's a hurricane (Hurricane Bill on the map) heading our way, too. Great! Even though it probably won't actually hit us like it'd hit the Caribbeans, it will at least be super windy and raining. Keep an eye out on the weather for me, will you?

Inside My Apartment

My second day in D.C. went well. I woke up this morning feeling lousy, however, because my wife wasn't next to me. :( Each minute apart gets worse and worse.

Today I did a whole LOT of networking. I went around the entire Navy Yard practically and met a ton of people. Amongst them were Program Managers, Deputy Program Managers, Assistant Program Managers, Chief Engineers, Captains, and I even ran into Admiral Hilarides who is the BIG BOSS (in charge of all of PEO SUB). In fact, I had seen him on the news one day being interviewed for a good 5 minutes or so. I didn't get to talk to him unfortunately because he was in the middle of a conversation with another officer, but it was cool standing next to him.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few pics of my apartment. These were taken by my iPhone. Since I can't plug any USBs into my work laptop, having my digital camera here would be useless (so it doesn't matter that I forgot it). Having the iPhone, I can take a picture (even though it isn't the best quality), and email it to myself. Anyway, here you go! Sorry for the last picture--it's a little too dark.

Not shown in these pictures are the two big bedrooms. From the last picture, to the left and to the right are both bedrooms. Each bedroom has its own walk-in closet AND bathroom with shower. Two master bedrooms!! 1,150 sq ft all to myself. :)

1st Day of Work

Well, today was my first day of work...again! :) It was a nice 90 degrees plus humidity today. By the time I got to work, I was sweating from head to toe. Totally grimy! So by the time I got to Pass & ID to get my new badge, I must have looked miserable. When I got my badge and walked to my new office, I introduced myself to my boss and was still sweating. Only now, I was not just sweating, I also had cotton mouth. I couldn't talk straight. He probably thinks I'm a stutterting baffoon. Eventually I cooled off, downed the entire drinking fountain (it's probably all dried up now), and began working.

As typical the first day on any job (or at least any GOVERNMENT job), I didn't have much to do. I had to get up to speed on what everyone was working on, so I read most of the day. I even had time to study some more engineering from my old college text book in the afternoon. So that was good.

I met a bunch of people. One girl who sits next to me actually works on the same floor I do back in Keyport. I had seen her before, but this was the first time we said more than just hi to each other. After talking to her for a while, I found out that she has season tickets to the Paramount Theater. She loves musicals. In fact, she's flying back home on Labor Day weekend to see Wicked even though she's seen it before. I was so sad when she mentioned that because I, too, have tickets for Wicked but can't fly back. :( My tickets are for Wednedsay and hers are for the weekend. So she can fly back. Sad. She even verified what Craig had told me once--Wicked is the best play ever!

Well, now it's time to go workout and/or cook dinner. Hope everyone is doing well back home! Miss you guys already.

I'm in D.C.

Well, everything is unpacked. I'm sitting at my new "office desk" in my new apartment, with a slight view of the Pentagon. It's about 85 degrees right now and gorgeous outside.

The trip started with Katie taking me to Sea-Tac airport. The flight was at 11:20pm. Katie and I had just left the Taste of Edmonds as I said goodbye to Stef/Robert, Mike/Kath, and Micah/Erika. We left around 9:20, thinking that'd be plenty of time. Well, you all might remember my ridiculous story the last time I moved to D.C., so I didn't quite expect our journey to be a piece of cake.

We encountered some HORRIBLE Seattle traffic around the U-District. I quickly pulled out my iPhone and saw that the traffic was horrible well past the stadiums. So Katie and I decided to get off Bolyston and head towards 99. After a few loops and circles, we got to 99. Katie made some good calls along the way--good job, sweetie! :) But after the viaduct, we started to get lost. The GPS on the iPhone was good, but it couldn't tell us about on-ramps. So we tried to jump back on 99 or 509 a few times with no luck. I began to lose patience.

Luckily, we ended up getting back on track after what seemed a VERY long time. We got to the airport around 10:25pm. We booked it to the ticket counter. The guy told us we just made it. We had 4 minutes left before they shut down the bag check. So praise God for that!

After that, Katie and I said our sad goodbyes. The minute I left her, I felt rotten inside. It is hard to explain, but needless to say I was very sad to wave goodbye after the security check. :(

I got to the gate just as they were boarding. I had left my boarding pass at home that I printed from the computer. I was supposed to be sitting in 28F or something like that. Well, when I had got to the ticket counter, I got a new one printed off but no seat number was assigned. So when I got to the gate, I requested a seat. They gave me FIRST CLASS!! Sweet...only the third time I'd been in first class. The seats were awesome of course, but the flight was extremely bumpy. I could hardly sleep because I kept freaking out.

Eventually we landed in Chi-Town. I killed an hour in Chicago and boarded again. The second flight was uneventful. Very smooth and relaxing. There was nobody sitting next to me. It was great. I slept the whole time. After landing, I got my bags and got my rental car. I picked a Chevy Cobalt--the same car I drove in San Diego when I lived there. The turning radius on that thing is bar none! Great car all around.

I followed the directions to my apartments. The leasing office is closed on Sundays, but the manager told me to go to the nearby Starbucks, and the keys, garage opener, etc. would be waiting there for me. So I did that, and the packet she left me was perfect. It had great directions and details. I parked my car, got to my building, and got to my place.

Unfortunately I realized here that I had forgot my camera. :( I would have loved to take a picture and post it on this, but unfortunately I can't right now. Katie is planning on mailing it to me though. What a wonderful place. It's huge, too. It will be perfect for anyone who is deciding to come visit me (hint hint). :) As soon as I got in, I checked the place out, and then I took a monster powernap. Then I had to figure out how to get my internet to work, but after some time, I obviously got it working since I can now post this.

Anyway, continue keeping me in prayer. I especially ask that you keep Katie in prayer, and please check up on her from time-to-time if you can.

Lastly, my new address is slightly different than what I first wrote. The first address I posted yesterday is actually the main building's number. My new address is:

1101 S. Joyce St. #2330
Arlington, VA 22202

I also have a new home number, but that's not really important anyway. :) Just call my cell.

Unblock Me!

Howdy, folks. Boy, when it rains it pours. I hadn't blogged in over 4 weeks, and now today you get not one but TWO posts. Yay! I guess I better get used to it, too, because I need to keep you guys updated on what's going on in D.C. Thank you, Sid, for that reminder!

Well, I just wanted to do a post about...well, really...nothing! :) Sid told me about this new App on the iPhone. It's called Unblock Me. The picture above shows you what it looks like. Basically there are 600 levels, and the object of the game is to get your main block (the orange colored blocked) to exit the screen off the far right side where there is a little opening. The catch is that you have to move the other blocks around in order to "free" the orange block, and only the vertical blocks can move up and down and the horizontal blocks can move left and right.

If you have the iPhone, I encourage you to get this. It's loads of fun and addicting. I got Katie hooked last night. I consider myself an expert at the game now. I was able to do 80 puzzles in less than 60 minutes--that's one level every 45 seconds or so. I'm now on level 330. People WILL struggle with this game if you don't think outside the box because some levels are VERY tricky.

Anyway, enjoy. Let me know how it works out for you.

Goodbye, All

Well, it's been forever and a half since I last blogged. That's mainly because if you read the last blog, I was under the impression I was leaving for D.C. by the middle to end of July. So every day and every week I have been living as though it were the last I'd spend in Seattle for some time. So I hardly had time to blog.

Within the time of my last post, many things happened:

Birthdays- Jessica , Sagar, Katie, Nate, Ruth, Lindsey, Sid, and Schwegs. Happy Birthday to all of you!!

Sports- My basketball team for IFGF sports made it to the championship game. We got disseminated in the finals though unfortunately, but I had a blast the whole time. I had a great season averaging many points, boards, blocks, assists, and steals. My best game was game 1 where I scored 18 points and 10 rebounds amongst other things. Pictures are posted on my Facebook page.

OwL- OwL (Owen and Lisa) both got baptized at Lake Entiat on their C20s camping trip. Congratulations to you both!! I'm so happy for you. In addition, they just left for a missions trip in Oaxaca, Mexico, for several weeks. Our prayers are with you.

Home- Katie and I had the chance to spend some time of relaxation up at the beach house in Whidbey. However, upon our return, we found out some people broke in our house and stole some things. Amongst the stolen were Katie's wedding jewelry, jewelry I had bought her (possibly), and the Nintendo Wii with all the accessories and games. Our prayer is for the souls of those who took it. We pray that they would find Jesus and turn from this pathetic lifestyle.

D.C.- And last but not least, I finally got the go ahead to go to D.C. I fly out tomorrow night on the redeye to Reagan National Airport. I start work on Monday. I am really excited but also nervous. I'm also extremely sad because I will be leaving my love for 7 weeks. :( It will be super difficult for us both I'm sure, but I know she is surrounded by our loving families and that she is well cared for. That makes me be at peace. Most of all, we are both still connected through God's ever present love, and that will help us get through this.

Please continue to pray for Katie during this time. Also pray for me in my new job. It will be brand new stuff for me, and I have a very short time to learn and perfect it. Pray that it would go smoothly and that I make an impression so that I can enhance my career.

For those who want to reach me, I will have my cell phone. You can also email me at hmani5@msn.com. My new address will be at the Post Pentagon Row Apartments: 1201 S. Joyce St. #2330, Arlington, VA 22202.

Post Pentagon Row Apartments

(yes, that's the Pentagon and Washington Monument in the background)

I'll miss you guys. Blessings to you all!