A Little of This... A Little of That.

Last week, Paul had to go to D.C. for work for a couple days. Luckily, my parents were willing to watch the Hobbes-it for a couple days, so I got to tag along. On previous visits, I've had the chance to visit all the monuments and memorials. I had one day to spend doing fun things, and settled on the Smithsonian museums. I talked to my friend Jeff, who lives a couple hours away, and we decided to make a day of it.

Paul and I stayed near the Pentagon, and ended up with a room overlooking the heart of D.C. I love it there... it always reminds me of Paris. We went to dinner after the long haul in from BWI, then went back to our room. My plan for the next day was to hop on a city bike and cross the river, at which point I would be able to stay on bike trails and cruise along at my leisure.

I walked to the nearest bike kiosk, rented my bike, and hopped on with GoogleMaps on board for directions. It routed me beneath the interstate overpass, which took me directly into the Pentagon parking lot... which is weird. Why isn't it secure??? Here's where it turns into a ridiculous Jessie trip story...

Google kept telling me to continue onto a road on which only authorized vehicles were allowed. So I kept riding in circles in the parking lot of the Pentagon, on my little city bike, with an earbud in my ear. Every single time I would pass the road, the silly Google lady would yell at me... I started to feel like I might look a bit... suspicious... And I was running late.

Cue phone call to give Paul a heads-up about my plan change. Bike back to nearest bike kiosk to get rid of the bike. Walk to nearest cab que. Catch awesome-crazy-fun cabby who dropped the F-bomb at the assholes who wouldn't let me merge, and got me through traffic in record time to the front door of the Natural History museum.

Jeff and I tromped around, ate lunch in the resident restaurant of the Native American History museum, then headed over to the Air and Space museum. Paul's day ended up being pretty short, so he met us there, and we wandered around, and played in a simulator that goes a full 180 degrees... I got three kills :D

We hopped city bikes and rode through central D.C. during rush hour... quite epic. We took the Metro (what I should've done in the morning...) and a bus out to Georgetown to go to the eponymous cupcake store, caught the train back out to the Pentagon with Jeff, and parted ways there. Later that night, we found a nearby Dogfish Head brewpub, and grabbed some brews.

Luckily, Paul's schedule allowed him to have the morning off before we headed home, so we headed back over to Georgetown to sightsee and tourist it up. Then we headed back home, and Paul ran a Christmas 5K the next morning.

A few days after we got back, I went to therapy for what will be my last time doing any real work there before my doctor's appointment. I asked my therapist what she thinks about my situation, and if she thinks I can run. She thinks I can.

Which is good. After I see the doctor and he tells me what he thinks about the lingering pain and what our plan of action is, I need to make a decision about a very special email I received...

I qualified for age group nationals! It was a more long term goal... maybe next year or the year after. So... we'll see.