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DC chronicles
Saturday. 12.17.16 12:31 pm
*disclaimer: long entry, as I will be typing up about the entire trip in one blog*

Monday morning (the day after my last blog entry, 5 days before traveling) I woke up with a horribly sore throat, chills, and no voice. I went in to work to tough it out; I wrote a sign to put up on my desk stating that I didn't have a voice, and requested the proper information from patients in order to do my job correctly. People still didn't believe me, even when I tried to talk. They thought I was just trying to be funny, or rude.

Toward the end of the day, it was getting worse, so I went to Urgent Care just to get tested to make sure I didn't have strep. If getting sick wasn't the last thing I'd wanted to do while on vacation, it was being on antibiotics for the duration of my already short trip. Luckily, I was tested negative; just turned out I had a really bad cold and I probably shouldn't have been at work on Monday. Oh well.

Tuesday my voice started coming back, Wednesday and Thursday I had started to feel so much better. Friday? Friday I woke up without a voice again and was now experiencing coughing fits, as well as my left ear not popping. Fantastic. My flight was scheduled to leave at 11:30pm that night. And I had a layover in Boston. So two flights with no voice, and an ear that wouldn't pop.

I somehow survived both flights and got in to DC right around 11am local time Saturday morning. My cousin's wife picked me up from the airport and we headed back to my aunt's place, stopping on the way to get food. After eating, I'd made plans with my friend to go hang out with him while everyone else was out and about or sleeping. It was still going to be a while, so I decided to attempt a nap since I'd been up for over 24 hours at that point. I maybe napped for an hour.

My friend picked me up and we headed over to the place he was dog sitting at. It was really, really nice to just get to hang out for a while with him that first day. I'd hoped to get to see him every day I was there, and that's exactly what happened. There were breaks in between; he does still have a life and me being in town shouldn't make everyone else put their lives on hold for it. Saturday evening we all just kind of hung out and talked.

Sunday was family picture day for all of them and I was volunteered to play photographer. I'm used to taking photos of nature, not people, and with my phone, not an actual camera. So it was interesting to say the least. I didn't think the pictures came out very well, but everyone else seemed to love them so that's what matters. The rest of the day kind of became a lazy day to just recoup and rest from the travel the previous day. I'm having a hard time remembering exactly what I did that evening, but I believe that was the night we had tacos from this yummy taco place out there called Taco Bamba. I now understand why you get more than just one of the same kind of taco.

Monday everyone had plans in the morning/early afternoon, so I just kind of hung out by myself for a while. I watched a little TV, showered, and took advantage of the time alone to nap. That evening I went with my friend to watch him at pipe band practice. It was really, really awesome seeing and hearing him, and all of them, play the bagpipes. I now get how the sound is different than just the practice chanter, which was all I'd heard my friend play last time. I was still trying to get my voice back at this point, so I felt bad whenever someone asked me a question and I'd have trouble amplifying my voice enough for them to be able to hear me over other sounds in the room. We left earlier than anticipated; the people he normally hung out with afterwards weren't around that night.

So we decided to head back to my cousin's to play a game. It turned out to be a not great idea, as it ended rather poorly, resulting in the two of us girls in tears, separately. (It was at this point that I was glad I'd had my conversation with my friend on the way back, rather than waiting until the next day.) The game Munchkin, I can see being a fun game, but as this was my first time playing, and the intensity at which the other three were playing, it just ended up not being fun at all. It became way too personal for everyone. After the game came to an abrupt end, my friend and I left and I asked if we could go for a drive, so we did. I crashed at his place that night. The next morning he had plans so I got dropped off and it was kind of a somber morning back at my cousin's.

Tuesday morning was when I'd finally started to get more of my normal voice back, though I was still having to deal with coughing fits. My cousin and I decided to go out for lunch that day, and kind of talk over what had happened the night before. By the time we got back to the house, things seemed to have gone back to normal. I was still kind of feeling down because it was my final full day there and I was definitely not ready to leave again. It was challenging to keep from crying at every turn.

Tuesday night was fancy date night with my friend; we went to a movie first (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; go see it if you haven't already), then came back to change in to something more dressy before going out to dinner. It... it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Between the timing of things, moods still being off, and the restaurant we'd wanted to go to saying the wrong hours on the website and being closed when we arrived, made it all feel less exciting. I still had a wonderful time; the food at the place we ended up going to instead was delicious and the company was enjoyable. It was just far less 'giddy' than I'd originally pictured it going in my head.

Wednesday was the museum. It was intense, to say the least. We spent four hours there, and still didn't see everything. There's just SO much to take in. I barely even cared about taking pictures while I was there. Unlike at the other museums that I'd visited previously; I just wanted to be able to focus on what I was seeing, rather than trying to get in as many shots as possible. I could spend that amount of time in there every day for a week and still not see everything that there is to see. If it the demand is lower by the time I eventually make my way back to DC, I will make it a higher priority to go again.

The museum is pretty much all we did before it was time to take me to the airport. I was told I couldn't cry; and I almost had a panic attack in the car headed to the airport while trying not to cry. I managed to make it on to the plane, and then broke down. It was dark at that point, and so staring out the window, I didn't even really care if anyone could see me or not. It took about the first hour of the flight to calm down again.

The only downside to this trip other than the short amount of time allowed, was the fact that there were some higher expectations. Unlike the two weeks I was there in October, where everything just kind of happened as it happened. There were very little expectations and I was just going with the flow pretty much the whole time I was there. The strings that weren't supposed to form last time, were very much in place this time around, and it made it a little more real, rather than complete and utter bliss. However, the reality of it was still something that I wanted to live. I didn't want to come back here at all. The really hard game night, sure I wanted to do what I normally do and go for a long drive, clear my head, be alone for a while. But where in previous vacations when shit went south, I'd want to go back home, no part of me wanted to leave. No part of me wanted to come back to Seattle. I wanted to continue living my life there.

Since I've been back, I worked the last two days and saw Rogue One last night. My voice is back to normal, but I still have a lingering cough. Due to the fact that I don't know when I'm going to be able to go back, nor do I know when I'm going to see everyone again, this time around may take a bit longer to adjust back to life here.
2 Comments.


Do you think you might end up moving out there? I feel like you mentioned thinking about it at some point but couldn't remember you were potentially planning it.

Also, that was my mom's car. She's had it for almost twenty years!
» randomjunk on 2016-12-17 04:57:27

it's been a long time i didn't hang out with my old friends. it seems that some of them don't wanna talk to me anymore for whatever reasons only known to them.

anyways u sound like u had fun during ur trip. yes.. farewell is always painful.
» renaye on 2016-12-19 08:21:55

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