<<<wayback machine...>>>
8/11/05
9:00am
--1 broccoli knish
This is DH's last morning of the conference, so I'm on my own until lunchtime. He really, really wants to go see the money at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing so I got up to go get tickets. I got started a little later than I had meant to, but I'm glad I didn't waste another second. By the time I got there, and then figured out where they were hiding the ticket distribution booth, they were only giving out tickets for 5pm and beyond! I was really bummed as we had the tickets for the Pops and couldn't possibly make it that like. Miracle or miracles, there were a few leftover tickets for the earlier tours and the lady was able to get us in at 1:30! Whew! DH would have been so disappointed!
After I got the tickets I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with the day, but it was very, very hot. I stopped into the cafe at the Holocaust Museum, which is right next door to the BEP. I've never had a knish before, so I couldn't resist trying one. It was pretty good, but a carb fiesta--potatoes, broccoli, and allegedly cheese though I didn't taste any--wrapped in pastry and baked! After I finished my breakfast I checked out the line at the Holocaust museum but since it was 9:30, the museum didn't open until 10:00am, and I had to meet DH at 11:30, it didn't seem worth waiting 30 minutes to spend hour in the museum before I'd have to leave to start the trek back to the hotel. Instead I walked back across the mall to the American History Musuem, which is only 3 1/2 blocks from our hotel. By the time I got there I only had to wait for about 10 minutes for them to open.
After doing the security routine (pockets empty, bag on the conveyor, wait for the guard to wave you through the metal detector) I had plenty of time to explore the American Presidency exhibit, which was very interesting. I learned more about life in the White House, saw a bunch of campaign memorabilia, an interesting movie about the president as portrayed in fictional works, and heard the History Channel station music about 273 times. Did I mention the exhibit was sponsored by the History Channel?
After that I went to see The Price of Freedom: America at War. Now I should mention here that I'm a bit of a scaredy cat. I get a bit freaked out walking around in the dark, I can't watch those crime shows on TV because they keep me up all night, and I never go see horror movies. Museums have always kind of creeped me out. They're so quiet and they're full of dark, empty corners. You never know what's coming next. This war exhibit freaked the bejeezus out of me! They had a bunch of scenes and dioramas set up with plastic mannequins and I'd be minding my own business, turing corners only to run face to face into a bloodied mannequin with creepy, empty plastic eyes pointing a big gun at me! I wound up kind of subtly following people through the exhibit so I wouldn't have to be alone with the scary mannequins of death.
After that I needed a sorbet to cleanse the palate so I headed down to the First Ladies exhibit and enjoyed looking at all of their gowns. I really love Hillary Clinton's inaugural gown--I can't remember if it's from the first or the second but it's the deep navy blue one with the A-line skirt and the sparkly violet-blue lace overlay. They won't mind if I borrow it for our cruise coming up, will they?
12:15pm
--4-5 pieces icky General Tso's chicken
--a few bites insipid fried rice
--2/3 plain bagel w/cream cheese
--1 scoop strawberry cheesecake ice cream.
When am I going to learn that the "Chinese" food from food court restaurants is never good?!? I ate less than half of my entree, then split a leftover bagel with DH. I capped it off with a scoop of ice cream, but even that was uninspiring. I should have just trusted my instincts and gone to Subway.
<There may have been a snack somewhere in here. I can't remember.>
After lunch we went over to the BEP for our tour. The tour was very well paced and well run. It moved quickly and contained lots of interesting information. Once it was over and we were herded into the gift shop there was any manner of money related gifts to be had! DH was in hog heaven, though I convinced him to leave with only a notepad made of recycled money and a pen filled with shredded money instead of the uncut sheet of $100 bills (selling at 4X face value) that he kept eyeing!
We then took a little rest back in our room. I got showered and changed and we headed out to the Metro station to begin the trip to Wolf Trap. It worked exactly as planned--we took the Metro to the designated stop, met up with the shuttle bus, and were at the park with a minimum of fuss. We had to wait briefly as they don't open the park until 6:30. Did I mention it was unbearably hot out! The temp was still over 90, with full humidity, and with all of us crowded together it was not pleasant!
They finally let us in and DH and I headed over to the Ovations restaurant were we had a pre-show reservation. Well, I didn't know that the restaurant was actually open before the park and you could schedule your meal earlier. When we got there the place was packed to the gills! There was a huge line to check in and an even bigger line for the buffet, which was what we had come to eat, since none of the regular menu selections appealed to us.
After waiting forever to get to the head of the check-in line, the clerk just walked away, without even acknowledging us! When she finally wandered back over, we gave her our name and reservation time and she said "I don't know...we're really overbooked for tonight and there's an accident on the freeway and people are getting here late" What the heck?!? Then, with no apparent explanation she grabs two menus and leads us off to this corner where there's a 2-top open. We're seated, and begin to look for a waiter. Over 10 mintues pass with several waiters walk by but none stop by us. Meanwhile the buffet line is now so long it's going all the way back to the check in stand. If I die and go to hell, this is a lot what I imagine it will be like.
I started thinking the situation over, and realized that I was hating every minute of this and it was just going to get worse when I was stuck in the huge buffet line, and, at $25 per person, I was going to be spending at least $65 for the privelige, I was ready to walk out. DH, of course, did not agree. He thought we should just get up and get in the buffet line and let the waiter find us whenever he felt like it. I was getting pretty irritated at that point, mostly because I hate crowds, felt like we were being treated very badly, and didn't want to spend a huge amount of money for an experience that would be unpleasant from beginning to end. Meanwhile it had now been 15 minutes and no waiter. Eventually we did walk out, though DH was in quite a snit about it.
6:45pm
--1 cheeseburger
--1 chicken wrap
--a few nachos
--1/2 bag chips
--few bites low-fat ice cream
We walked over to the concession stand and proceeded to spend almost $50 on food there.
DH was still really irritated, which didn't help matters for me. We wound up sitting on the grass eating our food.
DH gets really unpleasant when he's hungry. Some of the worst arguments we've had have been when he's been unfed. Once he's fed, he usually becomes a lot more reasonable and easy to deal with. The same was the case tonight. Once I got a sandwich in him he calmed down enough to listen to me and my perspective. We talked it all over and made up, but I still found myself quite shocked and dismayed at how much we'd fought on this trip. I don't know if it had anything to do with the heat, the stress of travel, or the extra togetherness, but I couldn't believe how much time we'd spent sniping at each other. We had good times, too, and we were always able to talk things out and make up pretty quickly, but who wants to spend their life fighting with someone? Do we really make each other that unhappy? We had about 3 good drag out fights on this trip, and at least 1 or 2 skirmishes each day.
I think we're going through kind of a rough patch together and coming toward a decision point. We've been together for about 6 years now, married for 4. I've read in several places that couples are most likely to divorce around the 4 year point, and I can understand why. By the time you get to this point, a lot of the magic is gone. You're not newlyweds, you've pretty much seen the best and the worst of each other, and there's isn't much new or exciting to discover about your partner. You kind of come to a realization that this is pretty much what it's going to be like for the rest of your life. Of course you and/or your partner may take up new interests, hobbies, but nothing really significant is likely to change.
I think DH and I have been coasting on autopilot for the last several years. Even now, we're not really all that in touch with each other. We spend our days separately, and then mostly spend our evenings and weekends doing our own thing. We're in the same room but we're miles apart. Most of the time when we talk it's about practical or logistical matters. Neither of us have put a great deal of effort into our marriage.
Part of the trouble is that I don't know what exactly it is that I want. By most standards DH is a good husband and I'm a good wife and we have a pretty good marriage. It still feels like there's something missing, though.
Back to the topic at hand...
After eating it was time for us to be seated for the show. The Pops came on and began the show. Keith Lockhart, is, of course, cute enough to spread on a cracker. He really gets his whole body into conducting. Follow the bouncing buns!
The first portion of the show was the Pops doing a series of American pieces--traditional music, An American in Paris, and a sing-along of patriotic songs. I think my favorite part was when the brought our a woman who was an elementary school principal near Boston who had won a competition to sing with the Boston Pops. She did a riotously fun verson of "If You're Good to Mama..." from Chicago. DH and I both really enjoyed it!
The second half of the show featured a singer, Linda Eder (I think...) who mostly did jazz standards. I was pretty disappointed with this portion of the performance. She was kind of a one-trick pony. Yes, you can sing loudly. Yes, you can really belt it out. Really, you're going to sing really loudly for us again? Quelle surprise...
I amused myself during her portion of the show by watching the sign language interpreter. I found it fascinating the way she was able not only to keep up with singers and speakers but how she managed to convey the tone and emotion into her signing as well.
After the show we made our way back to the bus and sweated our way through the metro ride back to the hotel.
11:00pm
--1/2 small cheese pizza
--2 almond cookies
--1 shortbread
--1 glass milk
We got a late snack when we got back. I was pretty stuffed when I was done, but at least I did put the last two of the cookies back on the room service tray to be picked up. We packed a little, took snowers (again!) and quickly fell asleep.
Thank you for sharing it all with us!
