Thursday came and it was my first full day in the city. Two blocks from Tom's apartment is the Ballston Mall, so I figured I could navigate myself that far, at least. I had a few things I felt like I needed to look for so I headed out to check out the mall. Let's just say the mall may not be there for too much longer. I went into Bath and Body Works to pick up some soaps for the house, and literally everything was on sale. I have never went into a bath and body shop where every single things was on sale. All soaps, lotions, etc, were $3. It was a very strange experience. Had my friend Erin been there she probably would have bought out the store. I showed some restraint and picked out the three things that I had come for and left to seek out Nationals gear. I knew Tom and I would be going to a Nationals game in coming days so I figured that I should get us some gear for the game. The mall has two sporting goods stores and neither of them carried any Nationals gear. So, I finally asked this guy that was working at a phone kiosk..."Hey, I know you're not guest services or anything, but I'm from out of town and looking to buy some Nationals gear. Where do they sell that stuff?" He looked at me like I had ten heads. "Nationals? You mean hockey?" Now, this was really confusing me. "No....like the baseball team? The Washington Nationals?" Still, he's got nothing. Finally, he says, "I don't know about that. Maybe Dick's sporting goods but it's way down on Columbia Pike. You have to take a taxi." This did not seem like a viable option. I hate taxis. So, I found a bench to sit on and tried to do some research on Nationals gear. I came up a empty-handed and remembered that Tom needed to get me a copy of keys made. I had his set of keys, so I figured the best use of my time would be to find a locksmith and see if they could duplicate the keys. The nearest place I found was a twenty minute walk away. That's no big deal so off I went. Now, because I had/have no clue where I'm going, I constantly have my GPS going. I had plugged in the address into my Google maps and covertly kept checking my screen. I didn't want it to be obvious I didn't know what I was doing, so I like to try to make it seem like I'm checking my texts. This proved to be a fair strategy until I got to the corner and had to wait to cross the road. Here I am standing in a gaggle of people, all clearly versed in knowing where they are going. I know they know where they are going because they walk exceptionally close to you. If I'm not walking the desired speed of someone behind me, they will literally be up on my heels until I go faster, or move to get out of their way. Days later, I heard people talking about this in line behind me. The phenomenon of being too close to people "creates a sense of urgency." Ideally, making people move faster. I'm not sure that's the case. Generally, it just makes me angry and I attribute these factors to east coast people. So there. Anyway, as I am standing in this mass of people, my GPS sounds, "Go straight, then turn right on Fairfax Avenue." For the shame! It's not like my GPS was turned down. Nope, that baby was cranked all the way up. So, now I have these people rolling their eyes at me. I almost ditched the effort entirely and headed back home. But, no, I told myself, I had to accomplish at least this one thing! I continued on and finally got to the key shop. It took them about two minutes to make the keys and then I was ready to begin the twenty minute commute back via my Lamborfeeties.
I was to meet Tom at the metro station as he got home from work so that we could walk home together and I could figure out where the metro station was. I called my mom on my way back to the metro station and noticed the winds had picked up quite a bit...and the clouds. The clouds were dark and ominous. Just as I got to the metro station, I saw the stands at the Farmer's Market begin to blow away. I thought, this is not going to be good. But, there is a cafe at the metro so I ducked in there. Just as soon as I got in, it began to pour. I mean, POUR rain. We see a lot of rain in Oregon, but this was a down pour. People were drenched outside. By the time, Tom got there it had lightened up a bit so the walk home was not too wet. We had to rush to get re-ready so we could get on the road. Afterall, tonight we had promised some of Tom's friends that we'd meet them for trivia in Maryland. The drive is about 45 minutes, or maybe an hour. We wager it's close to the drive between Eugene and Albany. However, the night before the fourth, and apparently everyone was escaping the city. On top of that the huge rains had brought standing water to two lanes of traffic on the road which we needed to travel. It took us about an hour to go five miles. In total, I think it was about three hours to Maryland. We missed most of trivia, but still managed to win! It was also my first time meeting his friends, Joanne, Boyd and their son Zach and his friend Caleb. All in all, it was a good night and very nice to finally meet everyone he's been talking about!
Game winning trivia question: "Which color of hair has the most hair follicles, generally speaking?"
You'll have to read the next blog post for the answer!
No comments:
Post a Comment