Washington D.C. August 18th

Me with my "noise maker" for the protest I joined against BOA. Funny they gave me the Diet Coke since that's all I drink. Must have been fate!



I left for D.C. yesterday. It was an early morning. Up for the Rapid City airport at 3:30am. It was a tough night since I stayed in Custer. I love seeing my friend, but that place still feels like home and it's hard being there in the middle of a beautiful summer night knowing that I will probably not ever spend much time there again. It also makes me feel overwhelmed knowing that I have to recreate that feeling all over again in Sheridan. But, I put that behind me and focused on our wonderful adventure that awaited us on the East Coast.

We get to the airport and the Delta check in was INSANE. I've never seen so many people that early in the Rapid air port and half of them had NO IDEA what they were doing. As if they had never flown before. There were open kiosks not being used and, in good form, I yell if anyone is using them and if not I'm gonna cut and check myself in. After I checked myself in, I realized that people didn't understand how to use them and Delta having amazing customer service like they do.... I started helping others check in. Going through security, there was this women behind me that was so nervous and didn't know what to do she was literally shaking. She was trying to pull out her I.D. and her hands were just trembling. I asked if she needed help and she said she was ok. When she tried to go through security she was so nervous that she didn't take her sneakers off or her jacket. Poor women. Must have never flown. Anyhow, finally we get to our gate, and guess what.... the plane was delayed for "technical difficulties" for an hour. Meaning that we were going to miss our flight in the Twin Cities. Oh well. Finally we got on the plane and landed in Minneapolis ten minutes before our next flight was supposed to leave. We rushed to our gate and found out that we had enough time because the pilots for that flight were also our pilots from Rapid City so they were late as well giving us time to board.

When we got to D.C., our friend Lily met us at the airport since she couldn't check into our hotel early. We took the metro, got checked in, and changed real quick before we left for the mall, capitol, and white house. We are staying only a few blocked from all of it so it was an easy walk there. I joined a protest in front of the white house :) It was against Bank of America. "WE BAILED THEM OUT AND NOW THEY NEED TO BAIL US OUT!" I was even given a rattle to shake after every sentence. And... it's as if they knew me cause I was handed the Diet Coke rattler. YES! My friends had to drag me away and up the street. I didn't want to depart with my rattler but didn't have a purse and they refused to put that dirty thing in their nice purses. Oh well... there went my protest souvenir.

Then we ventured to all the memorial. It's really quite surreal standing there and thinking of all the administrations that have come through this city; including our new one. And oh yeah, every minute I'm reminded of how out of shape I am! All these gorgeous runners stampede through with their svelte bodies every second. I mean, If I lived by the Washington Memorial and could run through a beautiful park everyday I WOULD TOO! Well, maybe for the first week.

I guess I'll add pictures later cause apparently the Holiday Inn downtown D.C. isn't fast enough to get er' done! What if I was an important diplomat or something!?!?!