Amazing Day

Today was simply astoundingly wonderful.

I got home last night around 2030 and was completely exhausted, so I went to bed by 2100...of course that meant that I woke up at 0600 this morning. I ate breakfast with my Mom before she left for work, took my time showering and futzing around, then grabbed my stuff and headed out for the Metro station.

Oh yes. Today was going to be a DC kind of day. My only regret is that I let the battery on my camera run out and hadn't recharged it, so I didn't get to take pictures. Next time...

Anyway. I rode down to Farragut West and walked from there to St. Matthew's Cathedral. I hadn't been inside before and the inside was beautiful. For those of you who haven't seen it, most of the artwork consists of huge, detailed mosaics. And the altar came from India, and was white marble with flowers made from some kind of red stone set into it. Beautiful. I stayed for Mass, and then wandered around the Golden Triangle area looking for a place to eat. (Well...choosing a place to eat). I finally settled at some small Italian bistro, and the food was yum yummy. Then I stopped by the HUGE Borders on the corner of 18th and ... H? K? One of those streets.

After I was done at Borders, I decided on a whim to Metro down to Arlington National Cemetery. The sun was shining; the sky was cloudless - I couldn't have asked for a prettier day. The Cemetery was really peaceful and ... inspiring. I wandered around looking at tombstones a bit, and was really struck by the depth of human life and emotion. So much was expressed just in the labels on the tombstones...there was one of a woman, and next to it was the one for her daughter, who was only a day old. There was another of a WWII vet who died in 1956, and next to it was his wife's. She had died earlier this month - that makes 50 years of devotion, of love, for someone she didn't even get to physically touch, whose voice she didn't get to hear. For her, that must have been enough - how fantastic that love must have been (or is...)


Anyway, after a bit I headed back out on the Metro, and proceeded to spend several hours in a Starbuck's doing Signals & Systems homework. The incredible part was that I got it almost all the way finished, and felt like I understood the material relatively well. Which was...nearly a first for that class.

Finally, I met up with Adam and we had coffee. It was good to see him (and Chris!) and to laugh and catch up on old times. Also I had a fortune cookie, and the fortune was quite auspicious...

All in all, today was extremely satisfying. It was awesome to be in DC, awesome to get things done, awesome to see a friend, and awesome to come home to my big warm snuggly bed with flannel sheets and lots of blankets.

I am a happy, happy, girl right now.

(Oh, yeah. There's also somehow a big crack on my windshield. I will have to figure out how to deal with that tomorrow...even discovering that today didn't do much to put a dent in the 'today rocks' index....)