Washington Diggity C

I am writing this blog on the train ride back from our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. I was up at 5am and on Amtrak this morning for a Top Secret mission, secure Vietnamese visas for the crewmembers of our show at ALL COSTS. I was instructed to use force…if necessary.

I have been to D.C. before, a few times in fact. The first time I was a sophomore in high school. I was in concert choir since 8th grade and our school had been invited to sing at some anniversary celebration for Lincoln or something rather. I remember just a few things from that trip.

One: It was during the two-week period that I “dated” THE hottest girl in school, while she was on the fritz with her jock boyfriend, John Dennis. Who if I’m not mistaken became a model of some type. Good for him, I wonder if he’s still an asshole?

Two: I got really drunk. I wasn’t even 16 I don’t think. We had smuggled Long Island Ice teas in Lipton Ice tea bottles ( It wasn’t MY idea, that’s for sure). I remember drinking until 5 in the am and then having to be at our ACTUAL nation’s Capital building for a tour before we left to go back to CT. I believe in fact that a good friend Matt Bishop actually had to put me in the shower and dress me…and support me up for a good part of the morning. I remember as a joke, someone put an air freshener can in my coat. Yeah….really funny joke when your hung-over / still drunk in the Capital building. Someone probably told me one day, I’d look back at that and laugh. What do you know, they were right.

The other time I went it had something to do with an online date. The results were not pleasing, and not of worthy mention here in these pages.

So anyway, I remember liking D.C., in general. It’s beautiful in the spring with all the cherry blossoms. However, many years later, I was much less impressed. First of all, it was hotter than NY I’m sure, very sticky. Their Union Station was nice, much prettier than Grand Central. But from the train station to the Embassy was nothing of those monuments, it was just a city, like NY…..with a few noticeable differences. Less people, but more suits. Everything was REALLY clean, that was a pleasant change, but there seemed also to be nothing for me to do while killing time. Of interesting note, there was a sign in the cab that said, “No Tips. Thank you.” I asked the cabbie about this, “Hey, No tips huh?” he replied, “I don’t know.” To which I continued, “that sign says ‘no tips’ is that common here in D.C?” to which he replied, “I don’t know.” We drove the rest of the way to the embassy in complete silence, no radio. In NY there are cabbies that you couldn’t tip enough for them to stop talking. I thought it was weird. It was also weird that the cab fee’s are in Zones, so it doesn’t matter how long it takes, you just pay a set fee depending on which zone you go to.

The women, although rarely spotted, were generally cute. They had kind of a “sophisticated” cute. I don’t know if it’s just the air over there, but everything FEELS like politics. Even the ladies.

So I get to the Embassy, and of COURSE, I need to fill out some forms that they never told me about, and I needed a single passport for every crew member, and the money order was the wrong amount and they don’t accept cash…and oh yeah, you can pick them up tomorrow!

Not to my liking. So I had to stomp and huff and puff and breathe fire out my nose for five minutes so they realized that I was serious when I said all of this was not possible, and I had been told this by this person etc., it’s all pre-arranged etc., here’s the approval code, the secret handshake, the special smoke signal and a box of cookies. They eventually submitted to my charm and or my composed, firm but nonetheless hissy fit.

So I’m on the train sitting next to a nice fellow, who was reading his Spanish newspaper, but then he fell asleep and his sleeves are really large and they are encroaching on my space. I keep hitting his sleeves with my elbow when typing.

I must end the madness of the sleeve rubbing!

P.S. Do you like my new links? Courtesy of some friends of mine who did the work and copied and pasted it to me. Check out Lisa’s blog, I happen to be linked on her site as a “possible future crush”……..SWEET!