These Things Happened

Here's a brief run-down of some of the highlights of the DC vacation.

1) It did, in fact, take WG and me two hours to find a hotel that should have taken less than five minutes to find. We started out in the wrong direction and just couldn't quite get back on track. We ran into a group of DC police, they gave us some directions, shouted "Good Luck," and we were off...that was 1/2 an hour into our trek, so you can see how good their instructions were. The good news is that, as we walked, a tall man with a red tie crossed our path. We looked quickle back and forth from him to each other and then, WG said, "Who WAS that?". I replied, "John Kerry." At which point, WG said, "Well, at least we'll have a story to tell." We then proceeded to walk through the more ghetto parts of DC, ran across "the most romantic restaurant in Washington DC" (what separated it from the six identical restaurants next to it, we'll never know) and finally, FINALLY realized that we could use the Google Text thing to get directions from our current location.

2) When finally trying to nap after our cranky tour of the International Spy Museum (you try being pleasant after a 5 hour flight, a two hour trek to the city and a two hour treck AROUND the city, not to mention no food or drink for about 8 hours), we were rudely awoken by someone on the hotel staff BANGING on the door insisting that she come in and "tur da yo shee," which, in our hazy state, we eventually realized meant, "turn down your sheets." By that point, WG had already gone to the door, shirtless, said, "What? What? No." To which the ever helpful staff person replied, "Chocolate?" And WG said, "Okay," took the squares of chocolate and came back to bed. I woke up and muttered something about remembering their being some mention of turn down service on the website and promptly collapsed back into my comfortable sleep.

3) I love museum cafe food. I have this great craving for it everytime I go to a museum. So, we went to the National Air and Space Museum, saw a McDonald's, and I worried that WG would just want to go ahead and eat there because, well, because we could find it. After the museum, he asked, "So, you still want to eat in your museum cafe?" To which I replied, "Yes, absolutely," and had trouble wiping the smile off of my face (he has my slightly trained to have low expectations, but I am starting to realize that he's a lot better boyfriend than I sometimes give him credit for), and he proceeded to find a cafe in which he had eaten on a high school trip to the city, years ago. Can I just say that I love my boyfriend?

4) We gave up on Georgetown, because that required a bus and more time than we had, and headed to a suitable substitute: DuPont Circle. WG first looked at a food guide, then said he should have researched restaurants before we left California, and then commented on how many restaurants seemed to be in the DuPont area...so, hoping for to avoid a two hour hunt for a restaurant, I suggested that we just hop on metro and see what looked good. Upon arriving, we took a quick tour of the area, spotted a nifty little "Asian Diner," kept walking, checked in with each other, and I said, "Let's go to that Asian Diner," which turned out to be a good choice. They served a mix of Asian cuisine (not Asian fusion so much as pan-Asian). He had coconut shrimp (Thai), I had a bowl of BBQ pork (Vietnamese), and we had a plate of sushi between us on the table (Japanese). Glorious.

5) WG actually made contact with one of his high school friends, and she picked us up at a metro stop and took us to the apartment she shares with her husband. We drank wine, pet her gorgeous dog, laughed at her strange little cat and just had a good time. Watching this girl and her husband talk about their next apartment and commenting on how he wants a garage, I realized that one of the reasons why I'm most looking forward to getting married is that there will be a "when" instead of an "if." "When we get our new apartment," instead of "If we ever live together." On the flight home, I told WG this, and he seemed impressed and said that it's not every woman who wants to get married so that she can share those mundane details with someone else.

6) I forgot to mention the wedding. The wedding was amazing. Beautiful gown. Beautiful bride. Happy groom. Crazy drunk Irish bartender. You know, the usual.

7) We *almost* missed our flight. We had to RUN down the hallway to our gate once we got through the maze that was security (and through the amazingly slow customers in front of me...one poor guy couldn't quite figure out how to take off his belt and slowed the line down about five minutes I didn't have). We got there, and the destination sign had been taken down. We said, "We're here for flight to San Francisco." "Oh, we've been waiting for you." We ran down the gateway, quickly walked to the very back of the plane to our...occupied seats.

"Uhm, excuse me"

"Yes?"

"There are people in our seats."

Stewardess to people in our seats, "Are these your seats?"

Two teen boys in our seats, "Uh, no, actually...uhm..our seats are...uhm..over there."

Stewardess on full duty, "Yeah, well, you're going to have to move."

They got up, the stewardess smiled at us, and we had our seats.

In which we sat for an hour while the plan waited for the okay to take off.

Not so late afterall.

But we got home. We still like each other. We were still happy to get together on Wednesday.

And I still believe that someday it'll be me up at the altar with WG.