Entry 9 (July 1 - 7) humidity is exhausting!
Monday, July 1
Today, I worked from home on my internship. Nothing out of the blue. Lots of article summaries.
I found a couple good memes and made chicken tacos. They turned out fabulously!
It's been a bit difficult to get back on track after my sickness but lack of resting last week.
Tuesday, July 2
Today, I felt emotionally exhausted and also so alive.
DC has been so great so far.
But for a small town kid with the family I have, my emotional capacity to process all these joyful experiences has been a bit stunted. There's just so much new and fun and beautiful here!
It's kind of like Halloween weekend for college freshman. The shininess and excitement wears off a bit, and you find yourself in your dorm with responsibilities and midterms. And you're not quite sure how you got here because you wake up from the golden retriever coma of excitement and the homesickness creeps in.
So I was pretty worn, but inside that exhaustion, I also felt so amazingly ALIVE. I still can't believe I'm living in DC and meeting the people I'm meeting, doing the things I'm doing. It's just so cool!
In honor of this exhaustion, I had a low key day. I went for a walk and worked on my astronomy research code for my lab.
I'm stuck in this perpetual loop of the code not working. Though it's exciting to finally relate to all the coding strive I've heard about, I also was ready to throw my computer off the roof.
Wednesday, July 3
This morning, roomie and I went to Georgetown (my first time) where we got specialty cookies, sat by the waterfront. It was gorgeous. Hung out. Fake dress shopped at abercrombie and fitch, felt pretty and on the way home, stopped at this coffee shop that hired those with special needs. I thought it was a beautiful concept and I highly appreciated the lack of sensory overload in the shop.
I worked on a couple things for my internship, then napped. That damn humidity takes a lot out of you.
When I woke up, I sewed pants for my RA bcs she got a couple holes in them and I needed a project.
A physics friend from Utah, who's doing research at UMaryland this summer, (we have two Utah physics friends in the East on this summer, this is the IKEA one not the baseball game one, for catch up) invited me to go to New York with him and his research buddies this weekend!
I've always wanted to go to New York, so this is a great opportunity to! I'm pretty pumped:)
Later in the evening, painted my toes & nails on the roof, bathing in orange sunset light.
I took a shower to prep for tomorrow, but when I got out I got a group chat message saying there was a rave on 5th floor kitchen.
Ok so the Hatch House is just kooky sometimes. So on the top floor there's this band of siblings. They bought a DJ set. Like the fancy sound board, speakers with disco lights.
I suppose they just throw raves in the upstairs kitchen pretty often? Either way, I was so down. What a way to ring in the 4th of July. It was absolutely packed for the smallest kitchen in the house. The disco lights were flashing in a whir. They music was blaring. The DJing was acceptable. I heard he's improved a lot recently. We each took turns dancing on the coffee table and cheering each other on. My personal favorite part of the night - besides going a bit too crazy dancing on the coffee table and accidentally kicking over the speaker - was one of us partiers had pregamed a bit too hard and they just stood in the corner. Bobbing their head. For sure the odd man out since everyone else was so high energy. Homie was so stoned and watching him watch the party and the flashing lights was just really entertaining.
The rave ruined my shower, but don't worry, it was compounded by a late night water advisory sent out to DC.
We have to boil any water we want to use, and we have no clue how long it would be like that.
Which explains why my roommate smacked my glass of water out of my hand during the party...
Even though it is already late, I'm staying up boiling pots of water in every pot our floor had. I can't deal with the idea of a floor full of people without water. It's too humid - come daytime - to not be prepared like that.
So now I'm in the kitchen recording my day while boiling pots and pots of water.
It's been a good day. A fun day.
Thursday, July 4
So for those of you who didn't grow up in Alamo, or haven't heard me talk about my relationship with the 4th of July, here's the spiel:
I LOVE THE 4TH OF JULY. It's not just a holiday. It's a way of life. Growing up, 4th of July was the day I was busy and running around and working for 24 hours straight. If I was Santa Clause, 4th of July would be my Christmas. I'd wake up at 4, throw on a dress I had sewn, temporary blue hair dye and festive makeup, I'd help the volleyball team with the breakfast, the cheerleaders with the fun run, decorate a float, be on a float, set up my own booth, run my class booth, do trashes and shuck corn as fundraiser for drama club, decorate for cowboy poetry, run my second booth, take an hour nap then serve the town dinner, swing dance pre-fireworks, fireworks, then hang out with friends until 4am the next day. This was often accompanied with a volleyball camp in Salt Lake the next day at 12 noon. I had my fingers in every town happening on the 4th of July I figured I should just run the town celebration. So I joined the town 4th of July committee and helped run it. (Also credit goes to my mom for making all that possible for me to do, thanks mom<3).
All this to say, the 4th of July is a big deal for me.
However...there's not a lot of running around to do like that here and if there was I think the humidity would kill me first. Also, I spent last year 4th of July in DC too, via a polisci conference.
So instead of all of that, I woke up late (because of the rave). I personally celebrated by putting on some wild makeup. And then I skipped the parade because it was at noon and who has a parade from noon to 3? that's the hottest part of the day!
Then I met up with the group I'm planning on going to New York with later. We wandered the Natural History Museum. The old ladies in the museum with their grandkids told me I looked stunning and it was seriously so sweet of them!!
The group I was with had a hard time with leadership and I didn't want to start making decisions. I wanted to see how they interacted as a group (since I am planning to go to the monster of a city that is New York later this week). However, no one could make a decision and we ended up standing in the rain for an hour and a half until I said 'it's been...an experience...but I have to go now' and I started walking and they followed in my direction until I said ok time for me to branch off now! I walked from the Mall to the Hatch House. It was unpleasant in the heat & humidity.
I got home just in time to see a text in the house group text that a housemate was going to the concert on the Capitol. I said I was coming with and ran inside to grab lunch and scarf down three bites of ice cream for an energy boost.
I didn't have a ton of faith in this housemate that we would stick together the whole time, so I didn't want to leave my pepper spray at home. And though I would never admit to such offenses, but I low key find it a point of pride to have perhaps have smuggled it past Capitol security...
The concert was already packed when we got there, but we got a seat in the back and sat on a poncho I had brought.
Guess who played??
Fitz and The Tantrums!!!
Despite what my housemate said, they are not a one-hit-wonder with "Handclap." I listen to and love many many of their songs. It was a pretty solid experience. It was just cool to see them live.
Most people had already claimed their seats for the fireworks and we didn't want to be stuck with crappy ones, so we left early to meet up with friends.
We were en route to meet other friends but we ran into a big group of housemates. We kept accumulating Hatchers (Hatch housemates) as they walked past so by the time the fireworks started, we had a mega group. Each in various altered states.
It was so fun to just be this mega group each swapping stories of how we spent our days and what famous people we had seen. There was this sense of community, comradery, but more than that there was this whif in the air - that I think we all felt - of impermanence. The thing that makes youth special is that it is a moving target. It's always escaping our grasp. But for a moment, all us 20 year olds sat shoulder to shoulder in a circle. Knowing none of us would all be in the same room again later in our lives, let alone on the National Mall right before 4th of July fireworks. So even though this feeling is a moving target, it sat still, descending on us for an hour or so while we all just enjoyed being around each other.
Now post-fireworks-on-The-Mall is another beast. I had done it last year so I knew what to expect, and the other intern for my work was in DC last summer too. I'm glad he was there because we took a leadership role, and navigated - I think herded is more appropriate, perhaps even wrangled - the large group onto the metro. Getting split up once, but reunited magically at the next stop. When we were about to walk into the Hatch House, a second and third group of Hatchers all showed up on the sidewalk at the same time. I'm glad we're on the same team because that really seemed more like a West Side Story type moment.
As the overworked elevator was going up and down, delivering everyone to their stops, I realized that even on my 'chill' 4th of July's, I end up being very busy. And I like that.
Friday, July 5
I woke up feeling pretty great today! Refreshed..somehow, though I do not know how.
I took a little adventure to Friendship Heights. The namesake for my amazing ward here! It was such a nice little neighborhood. I went there to go to my second favorite place (besides IKEA): Michaels craft store.
I needed new yarn for this new concept for a Maryland themed sweater vest I thought up, after hanging out with my Maryland Friend.
Michaels is a magical place full of wonder, creativity, and shiny things! I had so much fun looking at all the textures of beads and yarns and the color variety of just everything in the store.
I also picked up a cute pink tumbler to help me keep hydrated here, since I had to leave my Stanley in Nevada.
When I got home, I sunbathed on the roof. Not for the tan but for the heat ? I'm not sure what this love/hate relationship I have with the heat is out here. As a desert rat, I'm getting confused because of the humidity. But either way, it was nice.
Later in the day, the other intern and I went to a baseball game! He made friends with someone part of The Nats when he was here last summer and every so often got free - and might I add nice - tickets.
The last couple games I've come to, they haven't cared about my hydroflask so I figured why would they care about the tumbler? But boy was I wrong. The Nat's security likes to switch it up every game on how tight they are - depending on the famous people in the stadium that day.
Like for example. They got made I had a tote bag. So I folded up my toteback, stuffed it inside the clear bag I had had inside of my totbag and they stopped freaking out. They're weird. Anyways, this lady was losing her mind over my tumbler. And boy she thought she was smug about it too.
See the thing is about smug people, who think they have an upper hand because they're in power over something they think you value is I can't stand that. When faced with those situations, I like watch their smug face turn into surprise by acting sort of like a lizard who loses it's tail when a predator has it's tail. So I just looked at her and said ok then I'll throw it away. The surprise on her face was worth it. It was super cheap since I bought it from a craft store. I asked for the nearest trashcan and she then insisted she could throw it away and you know? I don't think she threw it away. I think she took it home and used it because she seemed very proud and excited as she placed it next to her purse.
I can *allegedly* fool the Capitol police but not the Nat's security. Don't even get me started on the security at the American History Museum.
So whatever part of me that enjoyed the heat while sunbathing earlier today was not having it anymore apparently because while watching the game, I started to feel heat exhaustion. I took a break and got some food and water, which helped. But it was for sure one of the hottest days, and we were in direct light - even if the sun was setting. So. Freaking. Humid.
I really need to let go of the concept that jeans are an all year kind of thing to wear.
Besides that though, the game was fun, and my friend - the other intern - told me all about the baseball lore him and his father bond over. It was really sweet. He know sooooo much about baseball, I was thoroughly impressed!
Saturday, July 6
I woke up with big hair.
Huge, floofy, hair. The humidity really just wanted to make itself known, as if I hadn't acknowledged it enough yesterday with heat exhaustion.
And I didn't go to New York today. After my experience with the group on the 4th, I figured there'll be better opportunities in the future to visit.
The nice thing about working from home is that the weekends can be my morning days since all my housemates are sleeping foreverlong because they all have desk jobs.
So I took a morning walk to Trader Joe's and made more chicken tacos, becasue they are dang good!
I got my yearly white vans in the mail today too. Pretty pumped for this year's set. I'm on my third re-buy of these shoes and even though they wore out a bit early this year due to the walking in DC, I'm pretty sold on how good they are.
I had an insightful conversation with my mom about a former family member of mine's plastic surgery gone wrong and spent the evening laughing at them with my roommates. It was therapeutic.
Sunday, July 7
On the way to church today, I saw a cat. It was very exciting. I love cats, and I haven't seen one in months.
No amount of 'pspspsps'-ing made it come over, but it was still good to say hi.
After a lovely church meeting, the missionaries invited me to a bbq at their apartment later that evening.
I ended up going, but I was late...and it was on a kind of sketchy part of town with a long walk under an overpass and through a homeless camp. I was not a fan. I also dropped one of my headphones while walking, so I was low key grumpy. When I got there, there were no buns left and it was still so hot and humid outside where we sat. Despite it though, it was still somewhat fun. The missionaries tried - very hard - to be entertaining. One elder, the one who gave me the concussion, shotgunned a sprite but failed horribly and we all laughed. We also played some games. It was cool to be at a summer bbq.
A group of us who lived in DuPont walked home together, and we caught this beautiful sunset. They also showed me a better path to a different metro station, than the one I had taken there.
Later that night I facetimed mom (the cat). It had been week full of spur of the moment plans and humidity.
