Wake Forest

Driving into North Carolina from Virginia
This guy was presiding over Grand Rounds.


This hospital has fantastic facilities. Lots of extras: family rooms (a place for adults to relax, read magazines, nap, etc), kid's play rooms, library/resource rooms (for families to read about their kids' illnesses), lots of art and statues geared towards kids...

They even had a playground on the roof of the building....

This is Winston-Salem from the roof of the hospital (it's not hazy, i'm taking the picture through the glass)


...and that's it

blahblahblah they're all starting to look the same

DC

SueNah's apartment building in Alexandria

the park across from her place
Old Town Alexandria
that's my tiny head, she doesn't zoom
Wigs!! two stores down was another wig shop...

sooooper fancy Indian restaurant in Old Town
our rrrromantic table in the corner near the window
chicken curry, was sooooooooooo good
Amanda you would have luuuuuved it

the super secret masonic temple

This is my makeshift bed taking up the whole living room floorspace in her cute little apartment. Actually, Zola seemed to own the bed, but he let me sleep there.This is Zola, the cat we found one winter in college.
the night we found him, due to SueNah's strict 'no pets' policy, little Zola slept on our front steps in a clothes hamper full of towels
the next night he charmed his way inside...

he's a stately old man now

where people drop off their kissables for the Metro



we met Mike at his office building on K street and 19th (super lobbyist/lawyer area)
and went to an Irish place for dinner

Mike is from Long Island (pronounced: loooohhhng oylind)

he walks and talks like New York and he definitely complements her well

he's the calm to her frazzle (sorry SueNah, but you gotta little frazzle in you)

ok, so you guys aren't smiling...TAKE TWO!


earlier in the week, we'd gone to an Ethiopian restaurant in DC
man it was good, and tons of food

we'd planned to go to a bar after dinner
walking out of the restaurant, I'd assumed we'd take a cab...right?

"Bar's only FIVE blocks, we can just walk..."

it is TWENTY DEGREES, my organs will shut down!!
I really thought it was possible i might actually freeze to death right there on the sidewalks of DC

(I couldn't feel my face in this picture)

but I made it after all, with all my organs still up'n'running

maybe I can be a tough ol' yankee after all, huh? huh?

sheesha bar (sheesha? shisha? she-shuhhhh)

my other makeshift bed...

driving in DC (Amanda is on the phone:))
the Potomac
the Pentagon
again...
911 Pentagon monument (SueNah calls it 'the ugly tentacles')
ain't she perty:)
she's going to a christmas party
i'm going to sit and blow my nose until i fall asleep

stupid girl

it's becoming increasingly difficult to not look like an idiot

so i'm done...for now
and I sorta don't wanna go home
not because I don't miss folks
but i like my inertia

oh, well
you can't beat Austin, that's for sure :)

happy holidays

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit,
my best wishes for an
environmentally conscious, socially responsible,
low-stress, non-addictive, gender neutral,
celebration of the winter solstice holiday,
practiced within the most enjoyable traditions
of the religious persuasion of your choice,
or secular practices of your choice,
with respect for
the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others,
or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful,
personally fulfilling, 
and medically uncomplicated recognition 
of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, 
but not without due respect
for the calendars of choice of other cultures
whose contributions to society 
have helped make America great 
(not to imply
that America is necessarily greater than any other country 
or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), 
and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, 
physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference
of the wishee. 

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. 
It is freely transferable
with no alteration to the original greeting. 
It implies no promise by the wisher 
to actually implement any of the wishes
for her / himself or others, 
and is void where prohibited by law, 
and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. 

This wish is warranted to perform 
as expected 
within the usual application of good tidings 
for a period of one year, 
or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, 
whichever comes first, 
and warranty is limited 
to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish 
at the sole discretion of the wisher. 

Norfolk

i'm not even ranking Norfolk
i would cry if I had to live/work there
more on that later...

on my way to Norfolk, i passed this junkyard
now, hold on people, lemme explain
it was pre-noon, ya know that unfiltered, not-yet-garish, white kinda sunshine
and you can't see it well on here, but
all the different colors and chrome of the smashed cars were glinting in that light
and it was so pretty and colorful
it looks all brown and gray and blah on here, but in real life it was really cool-lookin'

This is outside Williamsburg, near William & Mary
I tried to go see the actual colonial part, but there wasn't any parking...

back roads (temporarily lost again...)
marshy swampiness
very creepy, but I think this is near where that couple drowned in their car
which means I drove by them
that makes my stomach turn
this is Norfolk
you may say, yayyy water
i say, pppbbbthhh on that
maybe it reminded me of Tampa
and pppbbbthhh on that
i don't know why i applied here
a port city is a port city
here's a rich person on their sailboat
the concrete bridges and ships in port and dirty, steel-ish colors and even the sailboats and waterfront houses
detested by association
i wanted to turn around before I even arrived

ooh a tunnel...
inside the tunnel...
light at the end of the tunnel...
out of the tunnel...
I know that was lame, shutup

they put us up in a bed and breakfast
these are the homes across the street
cute yes, but do not be fooled
two streets down are abandoned buildings, broken windows, struggling businesses, bars on the doors, 5-6-7year olds walking alone, men sleeping in the park
there was such a stark contrast between the rich and the poor in this city
I hated it
this is the bed and breakfast

sounds nice, but!
it was sooooo creepy inside...
very dark
I was on the third floor (there were four)
the stairs and hardwood floors were creaky
I kept expecting the furniture to move
or the eyes in the old photographs to follow me
and for that quaint touch, their relative's headstone on the back patio

my room

strangest of all...the shower
a round clawfoot tub in the center of the room
a dark green shower curtain encircling the tub
when the shower curtain was closed, it was totally dark and claustrophobic

so, I watched Dark Heart/Iron Hand, about murders and how they were solved
totally made sense to watch that while creeped out in a potentially haunted house

Chrysler Museum of Art

this was in front of another hospital on the way out of town...

i won't even talk about the interviews or the program or the children's hospital
I wanted to get out of town asap