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November 20, 2005
Back from Baltimore
Wow, life really does exist outside of State College. Considering this was the first time since the very beginning of September that I'd been more than 15 miles from State College, I'd almost been beginning to wonder. I got down to Carl's apartment in inner-city Baltimore (Charles Village) just as he and Betsy were walking out the door to go pick up some Chinese food, so that was good timing. After a little while we drove up to Towson to Jess's apartment, to pick up her, Seth and Jess's roommate Erin (all Gusties), but along the way Carl & Betsy gave me a brief synopsis of what happened in the first three books/movies of the Harry Potter series, so that I wouldn't be totally clueless during the fourth movie, which we all went to Friday night. I'd say I liked the movie, though doubtless I would've appreciated "The Goblet of Fire" more had I been more familiar with the series, because even with the quick rundown of what had gone on prior to this film, there were a couple places where I was a little confused, but it was alright. The film's definitely not for young children though, and from what I gather, neither is the rest of the series really, even though it sure seems like it's being heavily marketed to some pretty young "skulls full of mush." It's not like I went straight to a book/movie store right afterwards, but I'll probably end up eventually seeing the rest of the films at some point, and possibly even reading the books, something I hadn't originally planned on doing. Like I don't have enough to read already...
Saturday morning we all (except for Erin, who had other stuff going on) got up and headed down to DC for the day. It was a gorgeous day, with only a few cirrus clouds here and there streaked across the bright blue sky, and cool (but not chilly) temps. First we went to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and poked around there for most of an hour, then we checked out the National Gallery of Art for an hour or so. We then grabbed a late lunch at the Old Post Office before wandering back over to The Mall, walking past (and taking many photos of) the Washington Monument, through the World War II Memorial and eventually on to the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately there was scaffolding all over inside the Lincoln Memorial, much preservation work was in progress. 
But at least this time there was actually water in the Reflecting Pool, as opposed to the only other time I'd been to DC, this past Easter weekend, when it was totally drained. Water makes everything look better. By the time we left the Lincoln Memorial it was getting to be dusk already, and before heading back to the Metro station we walked around the Tidal Pool to pay a visit to the Jefferson Memorial, since Seth had never been there before. Interestingly, the Jefferson Memorial was also under a good deal of preservation work. But I'd say the memorials and monuments and everything look cooler at night when they're all lit up, 
so it was fun to get the chance to see some of them not during daylight hours. When we made it back to Baltimore we stopped for an hour at The Lodge in downtown, but left because there wasn't live music like had been advertised, there was nowhere to sit, and we were all pretty tired from walking around DC all day. So we all went back to Carl's apartment and just ordered pizza, which was fine. We popped in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," since Carl & I were the only ones to have seen it, but halfway through we were all asleep, that's how tired we were! HGG's an awesome movie, but exhaustion and fatigue can be very assertive.
This morning I left Baltimore around 10:30 or so, and got back to State College around 2. I studied for a bit this afternoon for tomorrow evening's 501 exam, and then went to the Bible study at Anna's tonight for Penn State Christian Grads, the first one in a month or more that I've been able to make. I've been wanting to go to more of those, but my schedule's kinda gotten in the way.
I still have the cold and cough, ugh. But Friday night I broke down and actually got some cough syrup and cough drops, mostly to help me sleep through the night better. So I guess I should take care of myself and make tonight an early night, especially since I haven't slept terribly well the last four nights. Sigh. Hopefully I can get over this crap by Thanksgiving, I'm sick of being sick and hacking up a lung all the time.
And I know it's a day late, but Happy Birthday Mom! Hopefully the card got there before now. And I'd also like to wish Kerrie in the meteo dept a happy birthday, hers was also yesterday.
If any of you have travel plans to, from or in the Northeast either Tuesday or Wednesday, do take care to monitor the weather reports for the next few days. Looks like that storm that's been predicted for a week is coming to fruition, though it's still kinda hard to say how much snow's gonna fall where, or which areas are gonna see mostly rain. Could be an interesting couple of days for travel, to say the least.
And how ironic is it that after watching "Hitchhiker's Guide" last night, I forgot my towel at Carl's place this morning?
Posted by Jared at November 20, 2005 11:33 PM