Wednesday, July 09, 2008
The Weekend
Wednesday may seem a little late to be posting about the weekend, but seeing as I'm already a week late on writing about my trip, what's a couple days here and there?
Anyway, I went to work Thursday (bad idea) and then spent Thursday night at home, resting up a bit and unpacking my suitcase, though not even starting the mountain of laundry that needed to get done. Bear in mind that after getting home from the Disney trip I was only here 36 hours before heading off to Asia, so there was Disney laundry plus pre-Disney laundry stacked up. Since Mickey Mouse wasn't here to do it for me I needed to tackle it myself, but Thursday night I was just a wee bit tired, so that didn't happen.
Friday the 4th I met up with Stan for lunch, then we headed into the District to the National Gallery of Art. I wouldn't normally go into DC on the 4th of July -- it's kind of a madhouse -- but we figured we'd be out well before the nighttime festivities, so no big deal. As it turns out there were plenty of tourists already heading into the city, but that's OK, we moved pretty quickly past them in their confused daze.
At the National Gallery we saw an exhibition from the National Museum of Afghanistan, featuring pieces from older cities there that were a few thousand years old. After seeing the mix of styles I realized how much that country had really been controlled by others throughout its entire history, giving me a better idea why everyone I met there looked so different and spoke different languages. And yes, the symbolism of this event was not lost on me...last 4th of July, of course, I was actually in Afghanistan, though I didn't see as much gold there as I saw in this exhibit.
Afterwards we headed back out to Virginia and went to see Wall-E, which was a cute little Pixar film that was a bit different from other movies they've done (not a whole lot of speaking, for instance). It was cute and had a charming little love story to it, but it took a little while for me to get into it.
We came back to my place to make dinner and wait for the fireworks show. From my balcony you can see the fireworks not only in the District on the National Mall (the big show that gets featured on TV) but also all the smaller shows in the towns around here. Unfortunately, there were clouds and lots of humidity this night, and that combined with the smoke from the show managed to obscure all the National Mall fireworks from view, at least from here. At least we could see the smaller shows around the area. Plus, the beer and bratwursts were good.
Saturday I took a tour of the White House in the morning (one of the people in my office does some part-time work there and was taking a family on a tour, and had an extra spot for me) and then came home to watch the Wimbledon women's final. Good match. Later in the evening, after a jet-lagged induced nap, I met up with Kevin at a restaurant in a kind of sketchy part of the District (Kevin revels in sketchy parts of town!). Stan met up with us and the three of us went to a club that features carnival sideshow acts...in this case, your basic geek (swallowing balloons, hammering a nail into his head, that sort of thing) and his burlesque-dancing wife. Interesting, fun, and a little bit different.
Still not sleeping so well I managed to sleep in until about 9am Sunday then got up to watch the Wimbledon men's final. After a few hours of rain delay, not to mention the longest (and best, in my opinion) final match in Wimbledon history, it was about 4pm. Hmmmmm. Adrian and i went to see Hancock, which frankly left me a little disappointed. Guess I expected something a little funnier, and the story took an odd twist that wasn't really resolved, in my most humble opinion.
Afterwards, when we got home, we got a bad phone call: Adrian's dad had been taken to the hospital with what looked like a second stroke. We raced over there only to find some confusions, and after a less-than-stellar performance by the hospital staff (and, in my opinion, Adrian's siblings) we finally found his dad. He didn't look to bad, and a CT scan showed no problems, but they were keeping him to run some more tests. As it turns out, he did have another stroke, so the family needs to keep a close eye on him from here on out. Here's the thing: we have the ability in this country to treat people who are at risk for a stroke (and he's now had two) and allow them to enjoy a good quality of life, but it takes a little bit of effort, and I personally think the family -- including his dad -- needs to put that little bit of effort into it. Just my 2 baht worth.
Monday I was back in the office (bleh) but after work Stan and I had dinner (and ice cream!) then went downtown to see a screening of a show about the US and China for the Discovery Channel. We felt very intellectual.
And now life is back to normal. Other than waking up at least once in the middle of the night every night, I'm getting back to normal. Oh, and I started running again Tuesday, YAY!
And the laundry is getting done.
Anyway, I went to work Thursday (bad idea) and then spent Thursday night at home, resting up a bit and unpacking my suitcase, though not even starting the mountain of laundry that needed to get done. Bear in mind that after getting home from the Disney trip I was only here 36 hours before heading off to Asia, so there was Disney laundry plus pre-Disney laundry stacked up. Since Mickey Mouse wasn't here to do it for me I needed to tackle it myself, but Thursday night I was just a wee bit tired, so that didn't happen.
Friday the 4th I met up with Stan for lunch, then we headed into the District to the National Gallery of Art. I wouldn't normally go into DC on the 4th of July -- it's kind of a madhouse -- but we figured we'd be out well before the nighttime festivities, so no big deal. As it turns out there were plenty of tourists already heading into the city, but that's OK, we moved pretty quickly past them in their confused daze.
At the National Gallery we saw an exhibition from the National Museum of Afghanistan, featuring pieces from older cities there that were a few thousand years old. After seeing the mix of styles I realized how much that country had really been controlled by others throughout its entire history, giving me a better idea why everyone I met there looked so different and spoke different languages. And yes, the symbolism of this event was not lost on me...last 4th of July, of course, I was actually in Afghanistan, though I didn't see as much gold there as I saw in this exhibit.
Afterwards we headed back out to Virginia and went to see Wall-E, which was a cute little Pixar film that was a bit different from other movies they've done (not a whole lot of speaking, for instance). It was cute and had a charming little love story to it, but it took a little while for me to get into it.
We came back to my place to make dinner and wait for the fireworks show. From my balcony you can see the fireworks not only in the District on the National Mall (the big show that gets featured on TV) but also all the smaller shows in the towns around here. Unfortunately, there were clouds and lots of humidity this night, and that combined with the smoke from the show managed to obscure all the National Mall fireworks from view, at least from here. At least we could see the smaller shows around the area. Plus, the beer and bratwursts were good.
Saturday I took a tour of the White House in the morning (one of the people in my office does some part-time work there and was taking a family on a tour, and had an extra spot for me) and then came home to watch the Wimbledon women's final. Good match. Later in the evening, after a jet-lagged induced nap, I met up with Kevin at a restaurant in a kind of sketchy part of the District (Kevin revels in sketchy parts of town!). Stan met up with us and the three of us went to a club that features carnival sideshow acts...in this case, your basic geek (swallowing balloons, hammering a nail into his head, that sort of thing) and his burlesque-dancing wife. Interesting, fun, and a little bit different.
Still not sleeping so well I managed to sleep in until about 9am Sunday then got up to watch the Wimbledon men's final. After a few hours of rain delay, not to mention the longest (and best, in my opinion) final match in Wimbledon history, it was about 4pm. Hmmmmm. Adrian and i went to see Hancock, which frankly left me a little disappointed. Guess I expected something a little funnier, and the story took an odd twist that wasn't really resolved, in my most humble opinion.
Afterwards, when we got home, we got a bad phone call: Adrian's dad had been taken to the hospital with what looked like a second stroke. We raced over there only to find some confusions, and after a less-than-stellar performance by the hospital staff (and, in my opinion, Adrian's siblings) we finally found his dad. He didn't look to bad, and a CT scan showed no problems, but they were keeping him to run some more tests. As it turns out, he did have another stroke, so the family needs to keep a close eye on him from here on out. Here's the thing: we have the ability in this country to treat people who are at risk for a stroke (and he's now had two) and allow them to enjoy a good quality of life, but it takes a little bit of effort, and I personally think the family -- including his dad -- needs to put that little bit of effort into it. Just my 2 baht worth.
Monday I was back in the office (bleh) but after work Stan and I had dinner (and ice cream!) then went downtown to see a screening of a show about the US and China for the Discovery Channel. We felt very intellectual.
And now life is back to normal. Other than waking up at least once in the middle of the night every night, I'm getting back to normal. Oh, and I started running again Tuesday, YAY!
And the laundry is getting done.
Labels: Friends, Running, Work
