In which I abuse parentheses...

[next_to_normal]

Ack. I seem to have disappeared for several days again. Happy post-Halloween! What kind of costumes did everyone wear? I dressed up as a lame person who didn't do anything Halloweeny, though I did eat a jack-o-lantern cookie. My mom came to visit for the weekend (my dad was supposed to come, too, but he ended up having to work), so we were busy doing lots of other stuff.

On Friday, we went to the Newseum, which is a super-awesome museum about the history of journalism and news coverage of major events. It's HUGE, so they give you a two-day pass, though we managed to see just about everything we wanted to in one (very long) day, but we definitely skipped some things. Since the biggest news coverage tends to be about disasters and horrible things happening, it can be kinda depressing and possibly disturbing (they have exhibits on 9/11 and Katrina), but they also have stuff like the greatest moments in sports and interactive exhibits where you can be a reporter, in order to, as my mom said, "balance out the depressing with fun!" Also, they have one of the best museum food courts I've ever been to (second, perhaps, only to the American Indian museum, but I am biased toward any place where I can get buffalo burgers and fry bread). It's somehow connected to Wolfgang Puck, and so the food is really good, though obviously kinda pricey.

Saturday was the Jon Stewart rally, which I probably wouldn't have gone to if my mother hadn't been here. Nothing against Jon Stewart, but if you've seen one ridiculous mob scene on the Mall, you've seen them all, and getting into and out of the city is an absolute nightmare. (No matter how well-prepared Metro claims to be, they are always overwhelmed by the crowds.) But apparently, on the bus down here, some girl asked my mom if she was going to DC for the rally, and my mom was all flattered that she looked like someone who was a fan of Jon Stewart, lol. (She was expecting it to be all folks my age, but there turned out to be a lot of older people there, too.)

Anyway, the crowd was ridiculous, as predicted, so we missed the first hour of the rally, since it took us so long to get into the city. We never actually made it onto the Mall - we tried a few different spots before ending up on Independence Ave. directly to the side of the stage, which meant we could hear what was going on, but couldn't really see anything except the teleprompter. The best part of the rally was actually seeing all the clever and/or random signs people brought with them. (I think my favorite was the one that said, "The people behind me can't see." Of course, he was over on the side where we were, so there wasn't really anything to see.) There are pictures up on the website.

After the rally, we ended up using our Newseum tickets again (we figured it would be less crowded than the free museums) and had a late lunch at the food court, hoping the crowd would thin out in the meantime. But when we ventured back out, the Metro stations were still packed, and it took us about two hours to get home (it usually takes me 45 minutes during rush hour). I was surprised, though, that the crowd was generally well-behaved. I did not once have to use physical violence, lol, and I only had to yell a little bit when people wouldn't move so we could get off the packed train at our station.

Sunday was supposed to be a relaxing day, but somehow we ended up going to look at condos? I'm not sure how that happened. I mean, I am thinking about moving sometime in the future (no sense in paying all that money in rent if I know I want to stay here for a while, and it's the best market for a first-time buyer), but I've only just started seriously considering it, and probably wouldn't be moving for at least another six months or so. (My lease on my apartment is up August 1st.) Anyway, we started talking about it, and then I was looking at condos online, and we picked out four places with open houses. Except yesterday was the Marine Corps Marathon, so half of the streets in Arlington were closed, so we only managed to make it to two of them. It was a pretty dumb idea to go out while the marathon was going on, but we didn't realize quite how widespread it would be. Anyway, I will not be making any offers just yet, but I did meet a nice, friendly real estate agent who was willing to spend quite a bit of time giving me condo-hunting advice, even though I clearly could not afford the place she was showing. :)

Back at work today. :( Much less fun. How was your weekend?

Comments

[goldenusagi]

I have done nothing this weekend. Halloween hasn't meant much to me since I was trick-or-treating age, LOL.

[next_to_normal]

Heh. I had to get dressed up through all of high school, because our marching band always did a Halloween parade in costume. Other than that, though, I haven't really done much. I don't think I've gone to a Halloween party since college.

The free candy is really the best part of the holiday, and you don't get that after a certain age, lol. I always angsted about the costume because I never thought of anything good with enough time/money to put it together.

[mcmegan]

I love Halloween! This weekend was a lot of fun (also a lot of driving). Went to a concert in Baltimore Friday night, and I could have gone to that rally, since I was staying right outside of DC at Seamus's parents' house that night. But instead we drove to Jersey because my cousin got married on Sunday. The actual wedding was outside (freezing!), but the reception was lots of fun- everyone in costumes. The most entertaining thing was that my one brother made himself a robot costume out of boxes, and silver tubing (like what's hooked up to a laundry dryer vent exhaust- he used that to cover his arms and legs). The costume was so big that it took up his whole back seat, so he put it on in the parking lot, and had some mobility issues (he also had boxes over his feet). I almost died laughing as he tried to walk up stairs- the reception was upstairs in the building. Also, the hallway got narrow, so he almost had to walk sideways. The costume didn't stay on past the cocktail hour, but it was quite entertaining.

[next_to_normal]

Haha, the robot costume sounds hilarious! I hope there are pictures. :)