My Life As of Late

Lately I've been up to a lot of hustling and bustling. It's been fun, tiring, and busy. Here is what I've been up to and what I plan to do this weekend.

A couple of weekends ago, I went to a beach on the Chesapeake Bay with some friends. It was a lot of fun! We attempted to fly my kite, but was unsuccessful because there wasn't enough wind. The sad part is that I still haven't been able to fly it even though I've almost had it for a year. Why can't there ever be enough wind to fly it? Ugh! Besides the lack of flying of the kite, it was still a good time. We ended up getting into a sand fight. We were chasing each other all over the beach and the water throwing sand at each other. It ended up hurting a lot, but it was a blast. Soon afterward, we were playing in the water. Then we decided to build sand castles. We ended up building a volcano, a pyramid, and a spiral jetty (like the one in the Great Salt Lake). I also built a wall to prevent the waves from destroying our masterpieces and a pretty awesome bay that caught the water. It even included a light house. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have any pictures our work.

Then last week, I headed down to Virginia to a Glee party and met some great people there. One of the guys I met there was going to be in the Frederick area on Friday night so he stopped by. We went out to dinner and I showed him downtown Frederick. It was a lot of fun, and I discovered a new part of Frederick. There is a canal that runs through the downtown. It has a lot of artwork painted along the walls and bridges. Some of the art is painted as architecture, so the bridges looks like they are made from stone bricks and that there are porticoes with statues along the canal. I really enjoyed my time with my new friend David in Frederick.

On Saturday, I met up with a friend of a friend in DC whose name is also David. We pretty much had a lot of fun. We first went to the zoo and much hilarity ensued! Seriously! I've never had so much fun at the zoo. We were discovering all sorts of random facts about animals and the people were priceless. At the komodo dragon exhibit, there was a little girl that wouldn't stop talking. David eventually told her that komodo dragons breath fire. They got in a fight about it, and it was hilarious! This girl was so adamant about komodo dragons not breathing fire and then David was just as adamant that they in fact breathed fire. I think she eventually became frustrated and stopped talking to David. After which, we left the zoo.

We then walked to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was a great experience and completely delicious! Everything there was traditional Ethiopian. We sat in low-to-the-ground chairs, ate out of a basket, and other aspects that were uniquely Ethiopian. I guess in Ethiopia, they do not use utensils; they use their hands. They had these tortillas/bread that we tore into pieces to pick up the food. I had a lamb dish and David had a beef dish. I tried both. I definitely plan on going back there. I loved the environment and the food! Such a great cultural experience.

After gorging ourselves with food, we started our walk to the sight-seeing areas. We walked through Adams Morgan (a typical bar crawl area), Dupont Circle, Farragut, and then the Mall. The White House was great to see at night, but it was sad because there wasn't good people watching there. I guess all of the crazies and tourists don't stop by at night. We then headed towards the Jefferson Memorial because it was the only major memorial I haven't seen yet. We walked through the cherry blossom trees, minus the cherry blossoms and eventually ended up at the Jefferson Memorial. Here there was better people watching, but not as much during the day. David had me lie down on my back and look at Washington Monument/DC upside down. It was really cool. We then started a trend because everyone else was doing it too. It was funny. We also had tourists take pictures of us... I'm not entirely sure why. Haha! After the Jefferson, we headed home on the red line. We ended up walking 9 miles in total that day! It was such a good day and a fun time!

Then on Monday I was in Bethesda most of the day for meetings at the main campus. I met up with my friend April. We went out to dinner to catch up and plan our trip to Amish country in October for the harvest. While at dinner, I happened to spill my whole water glass on myself... Yeah, I'm cool and awesome like that! Haha! I was soaked for all of dinner and the whole way home. It was a good time though. I really enjoyed talking to April and catching up. Also, I cannot wait for our trip to Amish country! Can you say apples, squash, pumpkins, and everything delicious about Fall? I hope that they have spiced pumpkin cider there because I love it so!

David from Saturday also invited me to a musical called Chess. I went with him on Tuesday. The main reasons I went are because I wanted to hang out with him again and because they have my favorite 80's song in the musical, "One Night In Bangkok." The musical was ok. The performers were great and the lead female had an amazing voice, but we both agreed that we wouldn't have paid money to see this musical. It was interesting, but yeah... I don't know what to say about it.

Yesterday, I was finally able to start my HIV/AIDS project in full! We finally received approval from EHS. I spent most of the day yesterday deactivating the virus in monkey sera. I will start working on that project full-time coming very soon. I still have a few projects to finish up on before I can work full-time on the HIV/AIDS microarray. I'm excited to actually be working on the project I signed on to do! YAY!!! :D Yesterday, I also was pulled over by the Fort Detrick police officer. Ugh! :( The only problem was that one of my head lights was burned out. I have a fix-it citation and need to get it fixed ASAP; otherwise, I have to pay a $100 fee and possibly lose the registration to my car. I think that is a little much, but it is Maryland law. Oh well... I fixed it this evening and now I need to take it to the police department to show them it is fixed so that they can sign a stupid paper and then I'll be free from the citation.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a musical called Falsetto, and then on Saturday I'm going to the DC Rollergirls opening bout. It should be a good weekend of culture, roller derby, and friends! Life has been good as of late and I love how I'm making a lot of new friends!