Metro Madness

Rachel's Randomness

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"I want you to be swept away out there. I want you to levitate. I want you to sing with rapture and dance like a dervish." - Meet Joe Black

The news floor of The Washington Times is full of the sounds of computer keyboards gently clacking, the murmur of various reporter's voices and the occasional ring of phones. It reminds me of closing my eyes, holding my breath, and going underwater at the ocean -- listening to the sounds of people above you, the splashing, and the crashing of the waves. I randomly click on my Jabber chat video feature to check my appearance at 3 in the afternoon. I look tired, pinched, and deeply reflective - I've got to watch the frown lines between my eyebrows - the skin there was almost scrunched together.

I had just finished a great, although brief 10 minute interview with Dr. Douglas Weiss, the Executive Director of Heart to Heart Ministries. Nice man with a soothing voice - but not creepy soothing - he knows his stuff. I would go to him with marriage issues I think. Wait, that thought right there scares me. Scratch that - haha!

Okay, so I'm going to give you all a brief sum up of my week - the main things that stood out in each day - so that you're not tempted to "drop me like third period French." (for those of you who appreciate Ocean's 11)

Tuesday: Our bus driver, Alan, who drives us between Union Station and The Washington Times, thinks everything I say is hilarious and he loves giving me a hard time, but I give him a hard time back. He has dubbed me "Speedy" since apparently everyone here feels that I'm in need of multiple nicknames. Interesting Metro ride home Tuesday night. I stood up from my seat thinking the Metro conductor had completely stopped, only to find myself catapulting backwards grabbing nothing but air. Fortunately I half landed back in my seat, the other half of my bottom bone went *SMACK* into the armrest. Needless to say I will have a knot and bruise there for a long time - haha. Now THAT scene wasn't awkward at all. I had to laugh at myself and shrug it off to get people's eyes off of me. Finally put a collage of pictures I cut out of a Vogue magazine on my wall. This issue featured Matt Morrison from GLEE and Kristen Stewart from the Twilight series. Yay for our apartment looking more girly!

Thursday: Had another Metro adventure. I've figured out that the Metro only likes me every other day of the week. Got trapped on the Metro - the doors would not open on it. So we had to wait for 15 minutes and they still wouldn't open, then went up to the next station to turn back around to Metro Center. It was such a nuisance plus I started to feel claustrophobic and scared. Keep in mind that this all happened during rush hour when everyone is packed in like sardines. I kept muttering under my breath, "Dang it, dang it." When I learned that we would have to go to the next stop I groaned. There was a women in a wheelchair in front of me who looked back at me and said, "They have to go up to the next stop so the doors will open. Just chill - it's no big deal." Ha! Easy for you to say - I've never been trapped in a Metro car before and I don't think you struggle with tight places like I do. Decided not to say that out loud to her. Coming home from working out I noticed that it seemed like EVERY woman walking around or out of my apartment complex was pregnant! I wanted to say out loud, "What the heck?! What's with all the babies? Is there something in the water here?!" I even looked down to check my own stomach - whew - it's flat. Later that night the fire alarm in our building went off. It was so loud and obnoxious. I felt bad for all the firemen who had to come out for no reason. Yeah, Michal and I didn't even sweat about it and stayed in our room - we'd figure since we didn't smell smoke it was good. Took the firemen forever to figure out how to turn the alarm off.

Friday: I officially hate my feet. They look like I've been to battle and back again. I'm all bruises, blisters, pussy sores, and achy arches. Yes, I know I've shared this all before, but if I thought it was bad then, wow, it's nothing compared to now. I had my NJC session with Dr. Bird today. We mostly discussed our reading of this book titled, "The Law." Great but short read; it really broke down what the law should be and what socialism was. One of the main messages of the book talked about legal and illegal plunder and how socialists practice legal plunder and make the law their own weapon. We also concluded from the reading that consensus does not establish morality. I really enjoyed what I learned and what was reaffirmed in class today. Tonight I went to Georgetown for the first time since I've been here. It was so beautiful, cute and picturesque! I mentally kicked myself for not bringing my camera. Can't wait to go back and explore more. I was out with Natalia and Michaela - sweet girls. We grabbed some frozen yogurt which I had been craving since I got to D.C. It then started to rain. I thought of Margaret in Sense and Sensibility telling Marianne (after she said it wasn't going to rain), "You always say that and it always does!" It turned out to be a torrential downpour, which turned the crosswalks into the next best thing after Noah's flood. I've never got THAT accidentally wet before. I had to kick off my shoes and walk around barefoot, which of course felt superb on my open blisters. This whole scenario was so unbelievable that it became comical. Michaela nearly wiped out five times in front of me to which I died laughing each time. I had to admire her incredible balancing skills - I would have hit the concrete each time. She also, every time we'd encounter a puddle would lose a shoe and it would start floating off downstream - ha ha!!!

Tomorrow Michal and I are going to sleep in, (as I glance at the clock that reads 1:15 a.m.) and then workout and go walk around Old Town in Alexandria tomorrow in the afternoon. It'll be a nice girl's day. I shall write more tomorrow and shall be more witty and entertaining. I'm so burned out and can't think of clever movie quotes at the second. I've got a lot of work to do. Goodnight my friends and family!

Peace out,

Rachel Duke