This is more of an update in my life - but if you are looking for something to read, feel free to read my long tale of my time in DC.
When you begin to live life, you begin to have adventures. Sometimes, they may not seem to be extraordinary adventures, but any adventure is better than no adventure.
Most of my life was spent in the ‘no adventure zone’ until I started noticing the adventure around me, especially when I started limiting my "I'm bored, I'll get on Facebook" time and other things like that.
This last series of events, which as I begin to type this, aren’t over yet – but it is the best time I have to start writing them down.
Ok.
Back in January of 2012, I had quite a spiral of life changes and events – and I began looking for areas to focus. One of the things I found was volunteering to do research with a professor at BYU. So the year that followed resulted in me spending 1-2+ hours a week researching media violence, aggression, perceptions, etc.
Well, this last January, we got invited to present this research at the APS convention in Washington DC. Well, I hurried and booked everything, plans were made, tickets were purchased, and when May 23rd finally came, I hurried and jumped on a flight that would eventually get me to DC.
Day 0: My connecting flight was through JFK (New York), and this is really where the adventure picks up. First, no one sat by me on the flight (OR on the next one, which is weird, but appreciated). This may be that I have a history of getting airsick, so naturally “they” heard about it and didn’t want to come. BUT they should have. I didn’t get really sick. I was prepared. Ok. Not the adventure I was planning on sharing. Moving along.
So I get to JFK and immediately notice that there were a lot of flights cancelled. Well, mine didn’t appear cancelled, so I found my terminal after a long search because they had changed their naming system THAT DAY (I have a gift), and no signs were up so it really was an adventure, and went to go get some food (so it would be digested in time for the next flight, just in case). WELL, then I noticed my flight had been cancelled, and I had already been put on another flight. Which was nice, because it was by the charging stations, so I plugged in my phone and tablet, and began playing hangman on the iPad they had there – which was convenient since they don’t provide free wifi, which is inconvenient, and checking my flight periodically.
This is also were I met the most ‘friends,’ (and so far, I’ve only met one grumpy – read rude and mean – person on my whole trip, which has been lovely). I met people from all over the world, and one by one their flights were cancelled, which should have been foreboding. But the flight crew was adamant that our flight would leave, though delayed, no problem (since DC was a 45 min flight from JFK).
So, the hours, and hours, and a few more hours pass, with the flight getting more and more delayed, when finally, when we’re all in line for boarding, they tell us – oh, your flight is still delayed. (But they wouldn’t change the status on the board anymore, so it still was confusing and said we were supposed to be boarding). Another hour goes by, and guess what. Our flight is cancelled. So we should run over to gate 67 where they would help us out. But, don’t get too excited. All flights out for DC were booked for the next two days. GREAT. So anyway, some of my new friends left before this second line, to go stay in NYC for the night.
After about 20 minutes standing in line, the customer support lady looks at this crowd of tired and grumpy passengers and says, “what are you doing over here?” “They cancelled our flight and told us to come here” – said all of us, basically. “What no we didn’t. GO over there. We told you that 10 times.” Me, in my head, “sure you did, because all of us would be standing here if you kept telling us this because at this stage of our journey, we want to waste more time standing in line.” Yes, I too was getting grumpy, but note, I was really tired, and sarcasm is fun, even if it isn’t truly cathartic. So, we all run over – with the people at the back pushing forward and the people at the original front feeling entitled to be at the front – so since I was in the middle before, I was now at the end… waited in line. And then we waited, and waited. It turns out they didn’t cancel our flight due to weather which was the general assumption – no – they didn’t have a flight crew ready. Wonderful.
As soon as I get to the front of the line and start talking – about 15 words were exchanged when we hear they created a new flight for us to get into DC but we had to leave now because if it wasn’t in the air in 30 minutes, the crew would “time out” and the flight would cancel. Lovely, more running.
And now we’re back to the front of the line, where I naturally get pulled because my ticket had been ‘lost in the system’ (my boarding pass wouldn’t work since it was a new flight, that I was supposedly on already), so everyone basically gets onboard, and as I’m walking calling my uncle Randy, praying he is still awake after driving most of the way in already only to have my flight cancel and driving back to his house, a crew member puts a pink tag on my bag and takes it right out of my hand…. And tells me not to lose the slip, and to get on the plane. Weird. So I get on the plane, and people wanted “their” seats (even though everything was a mess and we were on a tight schedule), so after many requests by passengers and the crew, they sit down, and we’re basically off – just making the deadline by a minute.
I get in and off the plane DC around 2:30 am. I am tired. My Uncle Randy is right there, and finds me, which is quite the relief, and we get into his car. Then he drives me on my own tour of the now quiet DC, where I see the famous monuments and buildings lining the streets, and no traffic. Wonderful time, though I don’t really remember many details except that he may have ran a red light…or two as he was pointing out areas, and he may have almost ran into a wall on a turn… (It was 3 am, and we were both exhausted). We finally head to his house, and I go to bed.
Day 1:
I get up at 8 EST (or 6 am my body’s time) after an hour or two of attempts – and get ready for the day. My uncle then explains all the necessary information for my travels and gives me many helpful maps and even his metro and VRE tickets since he didn’t have to go to work, all while I am doing my best to shove a little breakfast in my mouth (it should be noted the accomplishment this is as breakfast isn’t usually appreciated so early in my stomach). And then we’re off. I get off my exit ok – but then I miss the hotel (where the convention is) by like 30 degrees – and so I end up walking around the block and calling my friendly acquaintance, the graduate student from my research team, to help me out. It should also be noted that I completely forgot my ID, wallet, or any real money, and DC is quite expensive and security is rather a big deal.
Well, I get to the conference, and luckily they don’t check for my ID – though they probably should have – so I get to go in, walk around, and truthfully be a little under-whelmed. The location is way in the basement, with a general and prevalent feeling of shoved in a corner. Anyway, we walk around a bit, see where our poster – to be presented on Day 2 – would be, and then decide to leave (I determined I spent less than 3 hours total at the event itself…oops…).
We go up to her room in the hotel to grab her mom and go tour around. At this stage I wasn’t really up to venturing out on my own, so I went with them to see “The Catholic University” and no I don’ tknow if that is really its name… but there was a huge cathedral at a Catholic university, and it was cool. Not my favorite place but it was interesting. Side note, neither Uncle Randy nor Aunt Karen had heard of this university. Sad note: I never made it to the zoo which is right by the hotel. Day 1 was windy and cold, so I didn’t like being outside much.
Brooke (the grad student) and her mom wanted to stay for a tour of the cathedral, but as I was a day behind in my sight-seeing, I decided to venture off on my own. And, after getting lost a few times my bag stuck in the metro car door – barely getting myself out of the door as it was – I made it to “The Mall” and got to go see a number of Smithsonian museums. It was actually really a wonderful feeling getting to go where I wanted, when I wanted. This doesn’t mean it is my preferred method of travel, but it wasn’t as scary as I’d imagined – people were nice and helpful when I got lost…
I went to the modern art museum which was a bit of a mistake, I didn’t realize which museum I had entered – but it was really interesting.
Then I went through the sculpture garden and over to the National Galleries, where I saw beautiful paintings where I really felt like I knew the people or was a part of the stories in them – I love art… anyway.
Next was the Natural History (TV show “Bones, the Hope Diamond, and other cool things) and the American History (the flag that inspired the National Anthem, all the First Lady’s dresses, and other great things) museums – and by this point I was REALLY tired – can’t imagine why – so I was picky about which exhibits to explore. I really enjoyed them. It was really fun to learn how to travel on my own, with friends and family right close by – so it was a pseudo-solo trip, but it helped me learn a little more independence and confidence.
Then, I found my way back to the metro, and over to the VRE – while en route I met the one really angry person because I had stopped in “not a good place” or something… anyway, she made me a little grumpy, but I was too tired to say anything back or really hold a grudge.
On the train, I ate my granola bar (from Brooke’s mom) which was all I had to eat all day since I didn’t have any money… life is an adventure, I tell you. And tried really hard to pay attention to where I was and not fall asleep, which was getting more and more difficult.
At any rate, I finally made it back. At Randy and Karen’s they let me make my own pizza, which was absolutely fabulous. I was so tired though… so mine was rather simple, but it was quite good. The cheese, bread (homemade, yum!), and sauce particularly were wonderful.
We then did what I really wanted to do – besides sleep – watch a movie. It was an interesting one I’d never heard of, called “Beautiful Creatures” which though wasn’t close to a favorite movie of mine, was intriguing, not overly cliché, and I did enjoy it. Then I went to bed, which was wonderful too.
Day 2: I woke up much too early, especially considering it was my birthday. BUT nonetheless, I got up and ready, and out the door. Uncle Randy dropped me off again at the station (Vienna) but didn’t realize that Vienna and several other metro stops were closed due to it was the weekend and they do construction… so I found my way to a free shuttle which solved the problem.
I got to the convention with no real problems, staked out our spot, and found a scavenger hunt option – though it wasn’t as cool once I actually read the rules, but still the idea was nice. Brooke and I then set up our poster, and talked to Dr. Ridge (the professor I volunteer with). Then he left to go check out other posters, and we were left to talk with the people. Brooke and I are both quite…quiet, so it was a bit of a challenge. But, I knew the beginning / why of the study really well, so I would start, and then Brooke would finish up on the stats and conclusions. We had people from all over the country look at it and talk with us, which was a bit intimidating. Luckily, Dr. Ridge came back and talked with the guy who knew most about aggression / media violence, as Brooke and I didn’t want to, really.
After that, Brooke and I stayed about an hour and looked around. We also tried this virtual reality thing, which was really cool – it made you feel like you were way up in the air and then they told you to jump off, I had to remind myself quite firmly that I was still on the carpet and then the illusion kind of burst (or at least wasn’t so strong), but it was fun to try it out. I’ve seen things like this for quite a while but never tried it myself.
Then we went over to the Library of Congress (still no zoo, it was really windy and up a hill, and I was tired, had blisters, and really wanted to stay with Brooke again for a while). So, we went over. We had just started looking at all these amazing things when a security guard forced us to evacuate without telling us what was going on. So, it left Brooke and me to come up with many theories as to why we were being evacuated.
It took a while to get out the special exit, which was odd, only adding to the theories we created. Eventually though, we got out and as soon as possible, asked what was going on. We received several reports from different police men – one said there was 1 suspicious package in the building, the next said there were 5 black backpacks placed strategically around the building, and the third said there were 2 backpacks at either end of the building. So at any rate, none of the packages were nearly as cool or creative as any of our theories (as nothing actually happened…that I know about anyway).
So then we decided after seeing the Capitol, though we didn’t go inside, to head down to Chinatown. Brooke and her mom went there yesterday and ate at the place where John Wilkes Booth planned the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (they ate there by accident, actually, but still cool – it’s a Chinese food place now). After getting separated on the train, which was quite funny to realize, we went to Panera, a very sentimental restaurant for me – the only thing besides the friends I missed from Illinois/Chicago. They even bought it for me since it was my birthday (I had my money with me this time though). Then we separated, which is too bad, I missed the company – but I wanted to go to the Archives, and they wanted to go see more memorials – which are very cool too.
So I sat in line at the Archives and ate my favorite pastry from Panera, the Chocolate Pastry – for close to an hour, before getting to go inside. I saw some fun things in there, but discovered the Magna Carta was there – which is odd as it is a British document, but it was cool, had most of the official wax seal from MY 20-something Great-Grandpa, King John, and everything. And, though it said no pictures... shh... (I won't admit to anything here though...)
Then I went and explored the gift shop, I don’t usually spend time there, but figured I might as well.
Then I headed back to the Jensens’, and how relieved I was when I made it. It is so nice to be staying with my Aunt and Uncle, who have welcomed me into their home, and been such a refuge and second home for me.
Sunday morning, I woke up and got ready for church. Aunt Karen showed me how to do some fun new things with Family Search – adding photos and stories to my family tree.
We ended up needing to leave after the second hour of church so I could get back to their house, hurry and eat, and run to the airport.
Traffic wasn’t too great, “Rolling Thunder” was in DC – apparently thousands of motorcycles were in DC for something… so traffic was backed up.
After making it to the airport, I had a bit of trouble getting my boarding pass because they had to change my flight somewhat last minute, so they had to call corporate and all sorts of craziness to print my pass. Then I ran over to the gate and met my professor actually, who ended up having the same flight, which was fun.
I had a layover in Detroit, where I had to run the entire length of the airport in about 7 minutes to make boarding. Which I did, but almost got shin-splints – I had new shoes… and wore them instead of running shoes – if I had known how far I had to go in Detroit, I would have changed shoes! Anyway. I got into SLC, actually got rather air sick at the end.
Then my family whisked me away to Morgan, UT to stay with my grandparents before heading up to Logan/Hyrum, UT for Memorial Day, where we ran around to many different family gatherings the entire day, so I didn’t end up getting home till 11 pm Monday.
It was a LONG weekend for a short amount of time. I am rather exhausted – but work seemed to help normalize things. So, that's nice. Haha.
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