Friday was class like normal. Then afterwards Rachelle and I went to Pentagon City and went shopping, but Rachelle left early because she was feeling sick. Then I met up with a bunch of people at the Capital Hill Brewery because Chad's mom was in town and she was treating everyone to dinner. Then that night me, Christine, Danielle, Eli, Mandi, Chad and Aaron (one of Chad's housemates) went to vintage hip-hop night at the Black Cat.
It was definitely a different atmosphere than the '80s/techno dance night, haha. It felt kind of like the underground hip-hop scene. And it was actually vintage. Like, I maybe only recognized three of the songs all night! But it was still a blast, and me and Danielle and Christine definitely didn't let our lack of song knowledge slow down the dancing, haha.
We left around 1:30 because we thought the metro closed at 2. But we really wanted to get a bus because it was raining and raining, so we waited at the bus stop. And lots of buses came, but never the one we needed. So after 40 minutes of standing there, wet and freezing, we finally took the metro back. We then walked to Chad's house because it's way closer to a station than our apartments, and he borrowed his housemate's car to drive us home. Needless to say, I was absolutely DRENCHED by the time we got back around 3, haha. But way fun night for sure!
And then Saturday I crashed. That's when I hit my limits. I slept. And Rachelle and I finally went out to dinner that night at Capital Hill Brewery. Then we went to Dupont with Coco for cupcakes. And then a group of us crashed on the floor of the ASP classroom with blankets and pillows and watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is just one of the most amazing movies ever.
Sunday I crashed too. I went to National Community Church with Danielle and then spent most of the day around the apartment doing work. Nothing too exciting.
Monday I had class and then Coco and I went on a walk to the nearest park and took lots of
pictures of the cherry blossoms -- they are SO pretty!! Honestly, if DC looked like this all the time I might be more inclined to want to stick around. It's beautiful right now, and it was a sunny, clear day too, which made it even better. We had family dinner that night and worship later too. In fact, it's been a week of dinners. Because Tuesday night my apartment and apartment 6 had dinner at Abigail's and then last night of course was progressive dinner and Jason Bongiovanni (our resident Italian) made an amaaaazing dinner!
This week I got to write some interesting pieces at my internship. I wrote about a woman in a cult in Baltimore who wouldn't plea guilty to starving her son to death until the prosecutors established a plea bargain that if her son were resurrected (i.e. rose from the dead like Jesus), all charges would be dropped. Crazy. I also took part in a teleconference yesterday for an hour for Mobilization for Poverty, an antipoverty movement that is urging Obama to focus his efforts on the poor. The House Whip was one of the many speakers, and I found it quite interesting, even though it was a looong phone call to listen in on.
The coolest thing I got to do, though, was attend an event on Tuesday. A group of evangelicals, including Leith Anderson (President of the National Association of Evangelicals) held a forum on reforming immigration policy in the United Methodist Building right next to the Capital. Anderson, along with the Vice President of World Relief and several other pastors, made clear the necessity for reform, and it was personally encouraging for me to hear Christians concerned about this particular issue.
The funniest thing happened though. The event was supposed to start at 5:30, but when I got there a few minutes early, it soon became clear that the reception started at 5:30, and the actual event wasn't until 6. So, starving this point after working a full day, I made a beeline to the dessert table and got a lemon bar, something chocolate chip and yummy, grapefruit, kiwi, etc and stood with my full plate when a woman came up to me, said she didn't know anyone, and began talking with me. A few minutes in she introduced herself, and it turned out she was Leith Anderson's -- the one man I needed to focus my article on -- wife! Out of all the people there!
She was so sweet and asked me about myself, my upbringing, home, work, etc. and then we talked to her about all of her travels (She's been everywhere ... not joking!) and her kids. Then Leith came up, and she introduced us, and when he found out I was from Biola, we launched into a discussion about Clyde Cook, who had been a personal friend of his. Then he asked me if I had ever been to Catalina Island before because they were going to be there in a few weeks and asked what I recommended doing, and I immediately asked if they liked kayaking. His response was that the last time he went kayaking was in NORWAY with THE Carters, complete with THE Carters' security ... somehow I don't think Catalina kayaking would compare, haha.
The three of us talked for maybe 10 minutes, and then his wife and I talked more -- we talked the entire 30 minutes before the forum began, and she was seriously the most encouraging woman. After it was over, I found her to tell her goodbye, and she gave me a huge hug and wished me luck with everything. So sweet!
Other cool thing of the evening: posing a question as a member of the media when the speakers had finished. So legit.
This weekend (Friday and Saturday) has been really fun! At Bible study we decided that we wanted to start our days Monday through Friday off by praying together and keeping each other accountable with devotions, so we got up Friday at 7 and did just that, which was wonderful. Then we were supposed to have Friday's edition of the Washington Post and the Examiner read, and I wanted to go running, so first Rachelle and I went to Jacob's to get the Post and Natalee and Shanley were already there. I decided that I would go running first and pick up copies of the Examiner on the way for everyone.
When I started running, it was just lightly raining, but after a mile it started pouring, which I looooooooved -- it's fabulous running in the rain! When I finally came to the corner where I could pick up the Examiner, though, there was still probably a little under half a mile left, and I knew that the paper would be dead by the time I got to Jacob's, so I stopped into a car mantainance place and got a huge black trash bag to stick them all in. And then I went sprinting the rest of the way through the pelting rain, carrying a huge black trash bag full of newspapers, feeling like an idiot, haha. But then I read the newspaper and had breakfast, so that was nice.
Then after class, Rachelle and I went out to the Jefferson and the FDR Memorials to take pictures of the cherry blossoms. It was sunny at this point, and Rachelle was worried it was going to start raining, but we decided to try our luck, and it was perfect and absolutely beautiful. We walked around taking pictures for quite a while and watched some of the sunset and the entire thing was just gorgeous. This is the stuff that I'm really going to miss when I leave.
After that we rushed to Chad's to watch Jurassic Park (and had an interesting stop on the way to get food ...) and we then watched both Jurassic Park and The Lost World with a group, which was way fun. Jurassic Park is seriously such a good movie -- I love how suspenseful it is, despite it being older.
I slept in this morning and then Rachelle and I decided that we needed to go out because it was such a beautiful day today. So we went out to the Smithsonian sculpture gardens and walked around, enjoying the art and being outside. And we took lots of pictures of our interpretations of the sculptures. Then we got lemonade and I got an ice cream sandwich and we lied down in the grass and talked for a while, which was so relaxing. But then the area closed and we went back to the apartment and made chicken marsala. Then we went up to the WJC lounge later this evening with Sarah, Christine and Alyssa and watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Friends. And then Rachelle and I played lots of speed. Always a good time. 
Random means of relaxing as of late: Danielle, Coco and I spent a significant amount of time the other evening taking facebook quizzes. The things you learn about yourself on those things are amazing ...
Oh, and I got another story in USA Today! http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-04-02-poverty_N.htm
pictures of the cherry blossoms -- they are SO pretty!! Honestly, if DC looked like this all the time I might be more inclined to want to stick around. It's beautiful right now, and it was a sunny, clear day too, which made it even better. We had family dinner that night and worship later too. In fact, it's been a week of dinners. Because Tuesday night my apartment and apartment 6 had dinner at Abigail's and then last night of course was progressive dinner and Jason Bongiovanni (our resident Italian) made an amaaaazing dinner! 
Then after class, Rachelle and I went out to the Jefferson and the FDR Memorials to take pictures of the cherry blossoms. It was sunny at this point, and Rachelle was worried it was going to start raining, but we decided to try our luck, and it was perfect and absolutely beautiful. We walked around taking pictures for quite a while and watched some of the sunset and the entire thing was just gorgeous. This is the stuff that I'm really going to miss when I leave. 
I slept in this morning and then Rachelle and I decided that we needed to go out because it was such a beautiful day today. So we went out to the Smithsonian sculpture gardens and walked around, enjoying the art and being outside. And we took lots of pictures of our interpretations of the sculptures. Then we got lemonade and I got an ice cream sandwich and we lied down in the grass and talked for a while, which was so relaxing. But then the area closed and we went back to the apartment and made chicken marsala. Then we went up to the WJC lounge later this evening with Sarah, Christine and Alyssa and watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Friends. And then Rachelle and I played lots of speed. Always a good time. 
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