A Capitol Adventure: First Weekend Away, no, First Weekend Home

My life comes in little

bits and

chunks

These days.

I'm slowly sharing bits of myself with roommates and people in the office,

I talk on the phone with my parents and my grandma (Hi, Grandma!),

I message my friends on Facebook, where conversations are made
up

Of a few words at
a time
Separated by spaces
And pauses
And those three little dots
That mean "they're typing."

It doesn't make me feel disconnected, but loved and appreciated:

I'm writing poetry with my life.

(the above happened because I am realizing how weird it is for me to write full sentences that aren't in that special brand of "text speak" I use with my friends, and also how practiced I've gotten at using line breaks for dramatic effect. File under: surprising things you realize when you move away)

Things I did this weekend: Friday night was a joy and a half. My roommates and I decided to go out to dinner after work, and so we tried out Bullfeathers, a well-known DC pub. The bar side was packed with staffers and interns letting loose after a long week, but the dinner side was cozy. The food was nothing to write home about, but the atmosphere was something to come back to someday. We did try their bacon pancake flavored shake, which sadly didn't live up to expectations :(

Then we walked to the Washington Monument! It was fun being tourists and taking tons of pictures, and I finally for the first time in the week I've been here, really felt like I was in DC. I fell in love with the Washington Monument (Again? My parents swear I've been to the top of it, and I sort of believe them, but have no memory of it happening.) and I can't wait to get a tour to the top!

Saturday Miranda and I went to the National Museum of American History and wandered around. We saw the First Ladies' dresses exhibit! It was super cool.

Then we went to the National Portrait Gallery, which, man, that was the coolest thing I've seen in a while. I will definitely return and spend a lot more hours looking at those portraits again. Plus it has this great indoor courtyard that one could spend an afternoon reading in.

Other highlights: riding the metro packed in like sardines, eating a delicious meal of fried chicken from Popeyes courtesy of my Mississippi roommate, finding the hotel my family stayed at when I was a kid, getting a selfie with Benjamin Franklin, and oh yeah, getting my READER'S CARD FOR THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

The Main Reading Room has been unlocked to me.
This is where you can find me from now on.

#nerd

Yeah, I now have full access to all of the library's collections. All 150 million items and counting. Okay, not every single item, but still, way more books and maps and sound recordings than anyone could fathom, really. You can't check things out of the Library of Congress (unless you're a member of congress. I'm quickly realizing the perks Members have here that I never thought about before.), but you can spend as much time you want in their reading rooms and you have access to all their online databases. Yep. So that was my weekend. How was yours?