The weekend was great, but I'm running solely on caffeine today.
All weekend, I had plans to get sleep, but friends and parties and fate kept intervening. Oh well, it was totally worth it. The conference was interesting and engaging, but the real highlight of the weekend was hanging out with old friends. I met some cool new people, too, mostly away from the conference which, if nothing else, demostrates my aversion to "networking." Also, the conference attracted a fair number of my least favorite "Washington" types -- people who like talking about politics more than they like the work of politics (to be fair, it's a trait most commonly found in students and very young professionals).
Aside from the conference, I went to a few fun parties (including a somewhat bizarre, but surprisingly fun foam party where I ran into people I knew from high school, college internships, my old job, and election-day volunteering in Florida), had drinks at a couple of my favorite bars, caught up with former co-workers on the Hill, and had some had some great half-drunk and drowsy late-night conversations. Yesterday, after leaving the conference, I explored part of Silver Spring with friends and sat around watching really dumb tv for a few hours. Before arriving at Dulles, I went to Wegmans, the greatest grocery store in the world. It was just as magnificent as I'd remembered and I even carted some garlic bread and hummus back to Berkeley.
My flight got back very early this morning and I'm still a little dazed. This was the first time I've ever flown cross-county and it's alarming how small the country seems when you cross it in five hours. I kind of understand why people who grew up on the coasts think of the middle as nothing more than "flyover country." I don't like it, but I understand it.
I'm also a little dazed by DC. It's kind of amazing how different the city felt to me than it did a year ago. In all likelihood, I've changed more than it has, but at times it felt like a completely new city. Anyway, it's still a great place and I'm not really any farther along in deciding whether I want to live there or here in California when I finish school. Oh well, I can procrastinate on the decision for a while longer.
Aside from the conference, I went to a few fun parties (including a somewhat bizarre, but surprisingly fun foam party where I ran into people I knew from high school, college internships, my old job, and election-day volunteering in Florida), had drinks at a couple of my favorite bars, caught up with former co-workers on the Hill, and had some had some great half-drunk and drowsy late-night conversations. Yesterday, after leaving the conference, I explored part of Silver Spring with friends and sat around watching really dumb tv for a few hours. Before arriving at Dulles, I went to Wegmans, the greatest grocery store in the world. It was just as magnificent as I'd remembered and I even carted some garlic bread and hummus back to Berkeley.
My flight got back very early this morning and I'm still a little dazed. This was the first time I've ever flown cross-county and it's alarming how small the country seems when you cross it in five hours. I kind of understand why people who grew up on the coasts think of the middle as nothing more than "flyover country." I don't like it, but I understand it.
I'm also a little dazed by DC. It's kind of amazing how different the city felt to me than it did a year ago. In all likelihood, I've changed more than it has, but at times it felt like a completely new city. Anyway, it's still a great place and I'm not really any farther along in deciding whether I want to live there or here in California when I finish school. Oh well, I can procrastinate on the decision for a while longer.
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