3D . in . DC . NYC .

It has been too long without an update. Starting back in June a ton of people happened to come through Washington DC all at once. On Friday, June 19 I got a visit by the Big Green Bus! They rolled up to the Hill and parked right outside the Botanical Gardens in front of the Capitol. It was pretty cool to see the Bus in action. The Bus is AWESOME. It’s really neat on the inside (although I remember it being oppressively hot) and there’s a ton of interesting sustainable construction products and exhibits inside. People were pretty surprised to see me wearing a suit, but that’s the Monday-Friday nine to five gig (C’est la vie for our French readers, Hi Andrew!). I arranged for a tour of the bus for some of the Committee staff and they were all very impressed. I gave Kari a big hug and someone on the Bus who didn’t know me said, “Did Kari just hit that man?”.

However, the Bus was not the main attraction that weekend. Three-dizzle resident and future Dirty Cowboy Star Andrew M stopped by while he visited family and Caitlin P made an appearance for the weekend! It was great seeing them both and I took them to my favorite bar in Dupont Circle called “The Big Hunt” (apparently it ‘smells like frat’, oh well. I like it). We met up with Caroline and Carrie who are in Washington for the summer and had dinner. It was great having Andrew and Caitlin in town and everyone is welcome to come visit me!

That Sunday I met up with the Bús in Bethesda and went to a College Summer League Baseball game where the Bus threw out the first pitch. It was a very small little stadium, but it was a lot of fun to stand right behind homeplate and watch the game. The Bus riders wanted to just chill, so me and Big Rory G headed into DC to hit the club scene. Yes, the club scene. A summary of the night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czR1yxKfhUc
What a summer.

The next week was Independence Day-Week Recess. Yes, Congress takes a whole week off for the 4th of July, so I got to take off a little early and head up to New York City and drop in on Lily. I went up Wednesday night and met Lily at her posh 1 Bryant Park ML office. I crashed at her place, which is very close to Time Square. The next morning went out to Strong Island to visit my Grandparents.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-15-2009/long-island-wants-to-secede

Unfortunately, my Grandfather had broken his hip earlier that week and was in the hospital. He is doing better, but it’s not an easy recovery. My Mom flew in for the weekend and I saw her for 8 hours on Thursday. I headed back in to Manhattan and hung out with Lily and her roommate (and my tripee!) Cathy (and Kate’s tripee too!). We went to Cathy’s office to watch the fireworks over the Hudson. We were 20 stories up and the perfect view of the river. Thanks Cathy! Then we went down to the East Village where my friend from home, David, lives. He had a small party on the roof of his apartment where we had a little bbq, music, ‘Coming to America’, fireworks, and a couple of my friends from home. I hope Lily and Cathy enjoyed it! The next morning, Lily promptly woke me up at 9 am, after I had dragged myself home at 5am, to go to Dim Sum in Chinatown. Even though I had a horrendous hangover, it was so worth it. Lily took Cathy and I to this Dim Sum restaurant that was so good. I had never been to Dim Sum before and Lily gave me a crash course and made sure I had twice as much as I needed. No English was spoken and I was the only white-devil in the building, except for the one family they put in the basement near the bathroom (at least they didn’t give me a fork!). After Dim Sum, we hit up the Asian market and got some dunkaroo-like things that I love and some Koala Yummies. However, I was in search for some hot kicks. I was very determined to find a cheap pair of fly Nike Air Max 90’s, but we didn’t see any around. I had a tip that I could find some around 28th and Broadway, so Lily and I headed that way. We found the place deserted, but I saw this group of African dudes selling handbags and the like and asked them if they had some sneaks. They knew a guy who then wanted to sell me some shoes from his apartment and led me to some building. I told Lily that she should take off, as she had to do some work, but she insisted on coming with me to make sure I didn’t get killed (good thing she did). When the guy took us to some sketchy empty apartment building and told me he didn’t have exactly what I wanted, but that I should come in, I told him ‘fuck that’ and then people started yelling at us and long story short, Lily and I peaced out ASAP and jumped into a cab that happened to drive by just at the right time. Phew.

All in all, it was a great trip to New York and it ended all too soon.

The next weekend, Toth came to visit for Potomac Fest. Here is the trip report I sent in for Ledyard Council:

Trip Report:

By the Numbers:

18 hours of driving,
1 borrowed neon green Everest,
4 hours of sleep,
67 cents in his pocket to make it back to NY,
5 trips between VA & MD, and
1 lost phone = a happy toth running The Great Falls of the
Potomac.

1 borrowed Wsport Fuse,
4 hours of sleep because I had to let Toth into my
apartment,
3 kayaks in a 400 sqft apartment, and
1 paddle between me and Toth (supplemented by hand paddles
courtesy of awesome local paddler) = a happy elar at the
Potomac playspot.

It’s been a very exciting few weeks. After a very stressful week in the office, I took a short trip to Delaware. I’ll save that one for another post.

Less than two weeks before I’m out of here! What a summer.