Catch up

Hello, all.

As I’ve not offered a substantive post in a while, I thought I would take advantage of my Memorial Day morning off by bringing my laptop outside to enjoy one of our first days of summer. Since I have to put my hand over my coffee cup every two seconds to prevent the front porch tree from making a deposit therein, this may take longer than usual, but I suppose my readers won’t be able to tell the difference.

I thought Christy gave a very comprehensive and accurate retelling of graduation, so I won’t duplicate her worthy effort. I will add that it was terrific to have her here, and believe her trips should occur with greater frequency. I also hereby make the following additions to the “Graduation 2006: What’s Hot, What’s Not” list:

* Hot: Allis, Sarah, and Christy. (I initially thought adding you to this list was superfluous since the fact is so obvious, so I apologize and hope this appropriately boosts applicable egos.)

* Not: Dispenza’s Mohawk, and whatever illness Ashley came down with.

On that note, I am extremely thankful that I was preserved was the same sickness that inflicted my roommates last week, though I probably could stand to lose 5 pounds or so much more than they could! It was a crazy week and I was needed at work, though, so I’m glad I stayed healthy. We’re still without a staff assistant and competent interns. Someday I’ll be able to return to my job – which, if I remember correctly, is writing letters – I hope I remember what that’s like by the time help arrives…

The end of the week was particularly stressful, as I struggled to get in touch with Beth as we’re getting closer to wedding time and we’re having to make arrangements, stay on top of my job, and tried to figure out how I could swing going to Cassidy’s graduation from Annapolis on Friday. As things began to shape up in such a way that it became quite clear that skipping work on Friday would be a bad thing for the office as a whole, I had to talk myself into believing such a move made me anything other than a loser. I am still not entirely convinced, but Cassidy was gracious enough to completely understand and arrange for me to join her family for her celebratory dinner.

So I go into work on Friday, bound and determined to get to much done, and then the wheels came off when there were reports of a gunman in my building.

At the start, we assumed it was just another misunderstanding or drill or something of the sort. We kept on answering phones and I tried to write my letters. Even when we were ordered into lockdown, I wasn’t upset. It was the SWAT team coming through to clear the office with their guns drawn that was unsettling.

We had our lighter moments, too. Thank God I have an office with a sense of humor. One of the guys had been planning on leaving in the early afternoon to go to the Outer Banks for the weekend. Obviously, that wasn’t happening. So after he spent a good while whining about this fact, we found a website that made ocean sounds and turned it on, really loud, so the whole leg office could hear. The look of his face made us laugh till we just about cried. Then there was the press secretary making a baking pan full of scrambled eggs in the microwave. Thomas on the phone with our boss every five minutes trying to explain why he wasn’t going to be let into the building, no matter how much he wanted to come in and see whether we were working on a Friday, because he was a Member of Congress and there was no way Capitol Police would let him anywhere near the building. The three poor “refugees” that ended up in our office had no idea what to make of us.

Of course, the whole time I’m thinking, I could be in Annapolis being a good friend right now, but no, work was so important to me that being held hostage is the right thing to do.

When they ultimately gave the all clear five hours after the ordeal began, I was on the phone with Kathleen, informing her that the guys had settled on watching the “World’s Strongest Man” contest on some offbeat cable station. The enunciator reported our freedom not a moment too soon.

Thankfully, we were also released in time for me to make it to Annapolis to see Cassidy and her family. We had a wonderful evening, and I had the joy of seeing my friend, now a Naval Officer, receive her ceremonial sword. That was pretty cool. We had much fun with that back at the house they’d rented on the river. Hey, when you know someone that long, a sleepover is a sleepover… even when you’re both in your twenties and are working for the federal government.

At any rate, it is Memorial Day, and summer has finally come to D.C. I am now off to work in order to get as ahead as possible in my work in the absence of coworkers and ringing phone lines.