My trip to D.C. - I'm sure no one will read this, but i'd love it if you did!

Washington D.C. is an amazing city. I always felt proud of living in Chicago, I thought there was plenty of sight-seeing and history by which anyone could remain amused for a lifetime. PSHH... I went to Washington D.C. last Thursday and I got back yesterday. It was an insanely busy trip. I did a lot of walking, and though I did not like how the streets were named after numbers and letters (boorrinnng), I couldn't help but love everything else about this city. OK, so let's rewind. . . **I apologize in advance for off-topic rambling and choppy event recolition. I'm writing most of this post almost a month after the trip.**

There's something about airports that make me happy. Whether it be the giant planes taking off and landing, or the hundreds of people who gathered to . I took many pictures of planes taking off... I wish I took more of the travelers. . . but, that's just pushing the creeper limit if you ask me.

[Thursday - Arrival]
The plane ride was surprisingly short. We arrived in D.C. late afternoon and the weather was really wet. When we got to the hotel (The Mariot by the metro I do believe) our rooms weren't even close to being ready. -- That's something I have never understood... isn't the whole point of check-in/out times so that one guest leaves with enough time for them to get ready for the next guest? -- Oh well, there was a Cosi about 20 feet away so we all went there for lunch....OMG I NEVER WANTED A SANDWICH SO BADLY. . . but I gave meat up for lent so I had veggies and Hummace... which was pretty good!

A little bit after lunch we were allowed into the hotel room. My roomies were Nora, Diana, and of course my bed mate Jelena (thanks for being such a motionless sleeper)! The matresses were REALLY comfortable.... I've always liked my own mattress but these seriously made me realize what I was missing.

After changing, we (SIMUN) took the metro to our first committee session! -- Oh, my goodness. The Metro is the best thing on earth! Why can't the EL be like the metro?! Trains came less than every 5 minutes, and not once while I was on the train did we have to stop and wait for another car to clear. On the el I have waited nearly 20 minutes because they can't get their act together. Come ON CTA! This is why I want to go into urban planning; I want to fix the el... and get rid of one way streets. My dad wanted to do that too, but I guess jobs are limited in that field so he became a sociology professor...sadly, I doubt I will ever actually go into urban planning. =[ --Anyways, back to WAMUNC. Opening ceremony was extremely boring... I did not listen to one word the speaker said! At first I felt badly because of this, but as his speech drawled on I figured it was his own fault for being so boring. After the ceremony we had dinner and then it was off to our first session.

I was walking to my building with some other kids from my school... sorta. In other words we were walking to the same place but attempting not to acknowledge one another. I was walking parallel with this pretty cute boy and we greeted each other. We began to make small talk. (Who said what is irrelevant... I don't remember it anyways)
Hi.
Hello.
*Exchange names... Ryan/Connie*
Are you headed for E street?
Yeah! You too?
Mhm, What committee are you in?
IRC, you?
Same!
Nice! What country are you?
China.
Great! Me too! ...so we're partners!
Wait... what school do you go to?
Ignatius...
I thought so...Me too... weird... why didn't we know we're partners?
Ryan: so I think we should start with topic A or B ... no one cares about C
Me: topic C? *oh fuck* what's that about again?
Ryan: You know the crisis in Columbia
Me: I didn't get a topic C... I don't think we're in the same committee... we shouldn't be. there are no joint delegations...
Ryan: but I'm sure Mrs. Haleas said IRC
*Jack Reidy Steps in* Um...you guys shouldn't be the same country... Ryan, your name tag says your in a different committee.
Ryan: but I already did the work for the IRC!
Me: Crap.. there's a topic C.....
Jack Reidy: you guys need to call Mrs. Haleas right now!

.... and we do. Turns out he was supposed to be in the other group but our committee chair let us be a joint delegation... Thus the Ryan & Connie team of awesomeness was born... best thing ever! We spent the entire first committee session listening to debate on what we should debate about... rather tedious. The topics were the Gaza Strip crisis, Columbia hostage crisis, and the Crisis in Dem Republic of Congo. It was our committee's job to make a budget plan for all of these crises. The first plan we made was for the DRC... not what China wanted but better than Columbia.. which I STILL knew nothing about.

When we got to the hotel, thank goodness Diana had her computer... I knew I had to write my Columbia position paper overnight and email it. Sadly... Diana and Jelena were on the computer and I didn't get it till nearly 1 in the morning.... I went to bed around 2 without finishing it yet. When I woke up in the morning I was going to finish it but again didn't get to use the computer. I ended up finishing my position paper after our excursion around DC literally 2 minutes before I was supposed to leave for committee. I am both an idiot... and a beast.

[Friday - Excursion]
The Friday morning excursion was amazing! We walked to the capital. Received a mini tour of the offices there and saw our senator's office... or at least the door to it. we then received a tour of the more aesthetic part of the capital... it was so beautiful! I have tons of pictures. We did photo shoots outside capital hill and rested on the stairs of the supreme court building. Split up, ate lunch and then went back to the hotel. It was a lovely morning. The Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom!

After the excursion there was two committee sessions. Ryan and I went looking for the building, got lost, and once we were half way there (it was the farthest one away btw) we realized that it was the wrong time and had to go back to where we came. A bit ridiculous. I had Italian food for dinner then went to the second committee session (the correct building thank goodness). The room we were in was really nice; I don't know its actual purpose, but it had tiers of desk space which was leveled around the room in an U formation.... pointless information, I know, but when I read this later I want to remember the room!

[Saturday - Alumni]
Saturday was mainly all committee session. Some of the people there were such charachters. This one girl would not stop asking questions... "point of inquiry on my point of inquiry!" It was really funny and the committee made a big joke out of it.

After committee we went to an alumni dinner and sadly missed the delegate dance because of it. However, the people there were very interesting; so, that was a lovely evening. I met someone who used to live in River Forest who might have gone to school with one of my relatives. I also met an old man who told me I could be anything I want to be! Did you know they used to teach Russian at Iggys? I wish they still did! I had a really cute dress on too! I'll have to find a picture of it...

[Sunday - Georgetown/Home?]
Sunday we packed our bags and went to our last committee session. Basically we goofed around the entire time. Earlier Ryan and I tried to assassinate someone (I forget who now) and though I believed we failed in doing so we started a chain of reactions. By the end of the committee session Canada has become part of the U.S., China took over California and all busy burgers across the U.S. (and changed them to panda express) WWIII had begun and the IRC spend all of their funds on a massive, bomb proof dinner party. How sweet is that?! During closing ceremony awards were given out and Ryan and I received an award. Third place in our committee, not bad.

After the ceremony we visited Georgetown. What a cute neighborhood!!! All the houses were different colors, and there were hundreds of little shops. Some where rather high-end and others were thrifty. I liked it. Seriously, I thought River Forest, or even Lincoln Park was cute... but this completely surpasses both of those. We received a tour of the University. I saw the chapel where my godfather's son, Rob, was married. I was there the last time I went to D.C. as well. Although, I knew very little of the importance of Georgetown U. at that time. That would be such an amazing school to go to! ... Sorry, I'm totally rambling.

Finally it was time to leave. We arrive at the airport, check in our bags, and then hear the flight has been canceled. The airport paid for us to stay at the Holiday Inn. The ENTIRE time we stayed there I kept hearing "we be chillin at the holiday Inn... something... all of my friiieenndss" . It was horrible! On top of constant singing in my head, I had a horrible sore throat and felt very sick that evening. One good thing about the hotel was that they gave you hard and soft pillows. THEY LET YOU PICK WHICH ONE YOU WANTED! Awesome right? I didn't like either pillow, but the fact that you could choose just made everything better. Another positive was my roommate, Alyssa was awesome! On the negative side we were given a 10 dollars for dinner but the service was horrible! I ordered casadilla's and I received my food when everyone else was finished with theirs and it was totally this one lady's fault. When I order I ask if they had breakfast, she said no and then moved on to the next person, skipping my order. I I call her attention and ask her for plain cheese casadillas. She goes "ok" without looking and then asks the next person before letting me finish and ask for a glass of orange juice. Then when she brings my casadillas they have all sorts of veggies on them and I tell her I ordered cheese and I ask for cheese. She brings back the same casadillas with more cheese on it and I re-explain I wanted ONLY cheese. First of all... I thought my request was clear, second of all every time I tried to tell her something she didn't pay attention. Three time I had to speak with her! Three strikes and you're out! So it was her fault. I got angry and bored and put salt in the pepper shaker and vis versa... BADASS.

[Monday- Home Sweet Home]
The next morning we flew back to Chicago.... which left me with the dissapointment I described in the first paragraph of this post. I went from cherry blossoms, colorful houses that had charachter, and spring weather to the cold, thawing, industrial, repetative Chicago. Since then however i've regained a little bit of the admiration I once had. I still love D.C. though.

Sears vs. Willis - Rape Juice

Ok, 'Willis Tower'. Seriously? I've never liked the name 'Sears Tower' to begin with, but 'Willis Tower' is simply the worst sounding thing ever. To many humans around the world Chicago is solely known for the large Sky-Scraper it possesses. Since that name is so well known, it should be something that represents the city as a whole. The name 'Sears Tower', to me, implies that Chicago is cool, urban and sheik. The way 'Willis Tower' sounds reminds me of an old man. Even the Willis company itself looks like it's for old boring business people (http://www.willis.com/). Not only does the name Willis remind me of an old man, but something rather dirty. It's the same concept as when "Gallans" was renamed as "Dick's". The word Willis simply puts my mind in the gutter. As if the Sears tower isn't enough of a phallic symbol already. If you don't understand how I'm making this dirty connection look at this: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=willis ......... Urban Dictionary never ceases to inform me of new disgusting actions I didn't know were done.... In my eyes, there will always be a Sears Tower in Chicago, Willis is just horrible sounding. What do you think?

I feel like such a slacker for not writing any posts. OK, so admittedly I HAVE written a few diddies... I just didn't post them. I think my main problem is that I try to organize my posts by topic, but whenever I start typing a thousand ideas rush into my head at once. I'll start off talking about D.C. and end up complaining about the re-naming of the Sears tower. I guess the point of this post is to warn you I'm going to have a posting frenzy in the next day or so.... enjooooy.

New Glasses

I'm utterly disappointed.

I've been waiting for the longest time to get a pair of glasses. My contacts dry my eyes out so that no-matter how hard I try to stay awake and do my homework, my eyes close, and I fall asleep. My previous pair of glasses had a thick grouping of scratches right in my line of vision, making it nearly impossible to read anything. So about a month ago my mom told me to make myself an eye-doctor appointment. Being the lazy-butt I am, I email Pearle Vision. I remember musing at how cool it was to be able to schedule an appointment online, because then I didn't have to leave the computer in the middle of my very important computer business! Well, after I went to my appointment, feeling very proud to have done so on my own, my mom says, "Where did you go? I hope you didn't go to Pearle, they always mess up the prescription." Annoyed at my mother's lack of appreciation for my new found independence, I decided to dismiss her concern. After all, a doctor is a doctor... how badly could they screw up? HAH.

Many weeks later (today) I go to pick up my eye-glasses. They were beautiful, Juicy Couture, rectangle lenses (though my mom was against it because she thought the longer the lense the thicker... pshh). I couldn't REALLY see them on me in the store, because I didn't want to take my contacts off, but I knew they'd look good, so it didn't really matter. I arrive home super stoked and take out my contacts so I could wear my glasses. I try them on and... WOAH it's like I grew a foot and i'm staring at people though binoculars. Now, I've worn glasses since 4th grade, and I know when you get a new pair they can feel a little different, but I mean WOAH. I look at myself in the mirror and can't help but feel cross eyed; and i'm complete unable to focus. I close my left eye, everything looks normal. I close my right eye, everything's double. Crap. The left eye is way too blury, I think it's the difference in clerity between the two eyes that makes it so difficult to see. I take them off to look at them and notice how incredibly thick the lenses are. At first I thought "Ohh well that's not that big of a deal, it doesn't effect my vision at all like mom said." Then I look at it from the other side and the word four eyes has a whole new meaning. Looking into the corner of my glasses I could see four of everything thanks to the thick curvature. 

The once sweet fondness I had for my glasses has turned sour. I'm wearing them right now and can't see a thing. Now I have to have another eye appointment, wait another two weeks, and put my eyes though another round of irritation through wearing them into the wee hours of the morn... all because I didn't go to the right eye doctor. I am utterly dissapointed in myself and these dumb glasses.

A few turning points.

I have often found myself feeling as if I'm stepping around jagged pieces of glass.  I mean that very literally; the image comes into my mind all the time. My dad died two years ago and i've had some pretty intense awkward moments.  For the awkwardness I've always blamed the other party  simply because I'm not super sensitive to people bringing up my dad's death.  I also knew a girl whose father died in grade-school, and she paraded it around trying to get sympathy.  I remember thinking about how ridiculous she was acting, and hearing how other people judged her and hoped I would never be like that if disaster struck me.  From these experiences I engraved the idea in my head that no one, no matter how kind, good willed, or caring they are, wants to hear anything remotely related to Dad's death. 

 I've unfortunately taken this perspective into all matters revolving death, and have become rather judgmental.  If anyone ever tells me about someone close to them who has passed on, I nod and console but find myself extremely strained. I can't help but think to myself, "If I can keep my thoughts to myself, why can't you?"  To a certain extent i've become very emotionally reserved (at least more than I was). Today, after being texted about some recent death of my friends relative who I had never known, I told my mom about this peeve of mine and she replied "Maybe you're the weird one."   I thought about this for all of .76 seconds and then moved on. 

Regardless of my harsh judgments I know I complain to others all the time.  I sprinkle my complaints around; a lame attempt not to overwhelm any specific person.  I know I'm being hypocritical and this drives me mad, which is why I feel as if I'm stepping around glass.   I'm trying to fight the temptation to seek attention and step around glass I try to be very careful as not to make anyone uncomfortable, and I'm constantly fighting the temptation to complain and seek pity/attention which I know I hate. Therefore, whenever I vent, I feel extremely terrible and guilty afterwards; fearful that I upset the invisible balance of happiness with my negativity or caused someone to judge me poorly (like the girl in grade-school I mentioned). 

Minutes ago, after one of my pity/venting parties via IM (I know, lame), I was feeling rather self-conscious and asked, " Is this conversation weird for you?" ... and they replied "no".  That was not the answer I expected at all.  Here I was sitting stiff and they say no... apparently they weren't as disturbed as I was. I finally realized my mom was right. I am the weird one.  By jumping around and running away from judgment I turned into this overly reserved, way overly sensitive person, who frequently and sporadically complains.  EWWWW. Sometimes I can't stand myself.  But I guess admitting it is the first step to fixing it.  And that's what I'm doing now.

Cheers! To being a better person. 

First Signs of Spring

I should be writing a paper on the economic policies of Russia and Iran, but I find blogger a much more satisfying way to use my writing skills. Not to mention today's weather was just beautiful, how could I possibly be able to sit at the computer and type a paper? (Ironically... I'm sitting on the computer... and typing this story.) Just smelling the air before a rainfall automatically puts me in a good mood and papers do the opposite.  Why should shoo away the warm fuzzies?  Honestly, I don't think I'm going to write this paper.

 Spring has truly begun at my household. I don't care what the groundhog said... IT'S HERE.  There are these white, tear-drop shaped flowers that grow beside my driveway and are the first thing to bloom each year.  My dad used to announce their coming upon his arrival home from work each spring, and my younger self would run out to look at them regardless of whether or not I had already seen them on my journey home from school. It's weird to think i've only experienced the joy of their first arrival 16  times.  I don't know why they hold so much meaning, but seeing them just makes me feel ten times stronger and more cheerful. Today I almost missed them.  I was walking up the driveway and passed them without a thought, but when I turned around to close the fence I looked up for some reason and somehow got a glimpse of white (and I automatically knew what it was).  It felt like my dad was pointing them out to me, but I'm not sure I believe that. 

My mom's been asking me to take pictures of flowers for her to hang since this time last year; so I decided to take some snapshots of the first sign of spring. BOY, what an adventure.  It was extremely muddy and windy; I took off my socks and shoes (brand new white pumas) and the wind blew my socks away! I looked for them but was too lazy too rummage around under the bushes so I ignored their disappearance. My mom would kill me if she knew... but I don't really care; I mean, I can't, it's already too late. 

Sadly all my pictures turned out horribly thanks to my lack of attention for detail.  There were some cords from the christmas lights laying on the ground (bright, ugly, orange ones), and they managed to get into all my favorite photos.  Also, most of my worms eye view pictures had  rabbit feces in them ... very attractive.  Although I did happen to catch a few damn good pictures of a lady bug (good as in content...  not in clarity =[ ).  Sadly that's about it. However I don't care if my pictures look like crap... IT'S SPRING!  And these photos can only help me to find my flaws and fix them.  Hooraay for learning!! 

"Is there anybody going to listen to my story?"

I feel weird getting personal with, well, nothing... and something! ... if you know what I mean. I'm not talking to anyone, but someone is going to read this. As I type right now I can feel the impatience settling in my stomach.  That feeling you get when you're trying to tell a story, and mid-sentence the listener averts his/her attention; thus triggering a series of emotions. When you finally notice said listener is not paying attention, you try to speak a little louder because maybe they just forgot you;  they continue to ignore you then the embarrassment sets in... Not only have you been pushed aside as the lesser of two occurrences, but you tried to regain their attention like a sad little puppy dog!  After standing there for a few moments, waiting until you can speak again, your confidence is completely shattered from lack of attention. 

So right now I guess I feel like that sad little puppy dog trying to gain your attention.  I hope I do, but in a positive "aww how adorable" way rather than the  angry"go away dog!" way.  (mind you this is a metaphor, I'd rather no one ever came up to me and said "aww how adorable!"... or to "go away dog" for that matter. 

Well, goodbye! 
... person who isn't there...