The longest day in the world

23.06.2010

I woke up bright and early on Friday morning at 4:15 a.m. I didn't even see Sylvain once, weird eh?! So, I left my car at his place and headed off to the airport on the bus, past the bums at the Salvation Army and the Shepherds of Good Hope. Why are they always up? Maybe if they did less crack, they'd be able to sleep better. Just a thought, I'm not judging. I saw a woman flipping out on a bench and her friends were just standing around like it was nothing. A couple of times, I admit flinching as I walked by a couple of men with crazy eyes who looked like they were trying to stare me down.

Anyway, the bus came soon and I got to the airport, breezed through security, not even a pat down this time. The lady even commented me on my choice of hair product. I think it was because I was standing behind an Asian guy. You never know what they might do, those crazy Japanese...

My tenant Melissa was there waiting for her plane to NYC with her girlfriends. I thought that was funny.

I slept for a little bit on the plane, but it was freaking freezing with the air conditioning. Turn it down Air Canada! This is the first time I've flown with them in a while and you really do get better service, I mean it.

I got off the plane in Washington at 9 a.m. It was easy finding my way to the Mall, since there is a big giant subway map and a big giant subway station that says THE MALL on it. Ha.

The festival I wanted to go to, Smithsonian Folklife, hadn't started yet, so I wandered around down to the Washington monument. People were lining up for something so I figured I might as well too. Lucky me, I got some of the last few tickets to the top. (That I would fit my schedule anyway).

It was already insanely hot and I never brought a water bottle for some unknown reason, but there were drinking taps all around so, I wasn't worried. I was more worried about my poor sunburned arms. I brought the maximum limit of sunscreen (100 ml) on the plane, and put probably half of it on.

So I walked and walked and walked. White House over there, I had my Jennyyyyyyy moment at the reflecting pools, saw Mr. Abe over there in his big chair, read some names at the Vietnam memorial and walked side by side with some cement soldiers at the Korean War memorial.

Soon, it was time to go back to Folklife. I watched a lady make soba noodles from scratch while I chowed down on sweet potatoes and lentils, made from scratch, by me.

The awesomest thing about this festival is tha they supplied ice cold water from giant tubs for anyone to drink. So I was all over that all day long. I went to go listen to some Indian sitar music, and promptly passed out, laying down over four chairs. Honestly, I don't care what I looked like I was freaking tired and that music was otherworldly. Sorry there's no video...

Next came loud and annoying Japanese dancers you know the ones with the fans. My brain was going to explode, so I left to sit under the trees and listen to some Mexican music. Which was lovely once again.

They said that if I went to go buy something in the shop, I'd get a free CD. Turns out that was a lie, but I got an awesome tiger mask from Haiti for $10.

When I got home, I noticed the cashier secretly stuck in one of the CDs when his boss wasn't looking. I must've looked really disappointed.

Then, it was time for my tour of the Washington monument. It was SUPER windy but refreshing on such a retardedly hot day. Later on, Owen told me there were heat advisories.

The coolest thing about the Washington monument is that there are intricately carved stones on the INSIDE because people used to walk up the stairs to the top of it. Now, we take the elevator and we have to slow down to see it.

After that, I made the trek to the other side of the mall, to see the capitol building. I didn't go in, but I did get yelled at by a cop. I started crossing the street at the traffic light like a normal person when he stuck out his hand and made me stop.

"What are you doing?"

"Our jobs, ma'am!"

"Uh... OK."

And then he let me through.

I asked a lady cop what she was doing there.

Silence.

"Is there someone special in the car?"

"A foreign dignitary"

"Oh yeah? Who would that be?"

Silence.

"You can't tell me?"

Silence.

"You could just say you're not allowed to say..."

I saw a neatly coiffed blonde lady get into the towncar and speed off with the rest of the motorcade, and that was it.

Whatever.

Soon it was time to find Owen at Komi, so I made my way to the subway. I got lost many times, but still managed only to be 15 minutes late.

The subway was also broken when I got there, adding to my lateness.

Anyway, Owen was waiting for me all clean and shaved and in a dry, fresh looking white shirt. I was immediately jealous.

I showed up with my backpack, sweaty hair and dirty clothes, ready to die. The ice water waiting for me on the table was the most delicious thing in the world.

I quickly got changed in the washroom and did my hair as best as I could. But there was no way I could match the upper middle class people who frequent this place. No matter, we were here for the amazing food and wine, not for a fashion show right?

Thirteen courses and five wines later, I think we were satiated. We had everything from small bites of sushi, brioche, tapas and at the end was a "make your own donair" sort of plate. Owen was impressed until I called it that.

I was impressed until I saw the main dish was a freaking donair...

Anyway, we just missed the MARC train back, so we took the Amtrack. They gave us sandwiches and put us in business class because the train was late. Then we went back to Baltimore, hurrah.

Me on the Metro