Is this real?

  New intern girl at work in the other department. Getting to know her at lunch, she reveals that she went to college at the Citadel. Which sounded terrible enough, but then:

  "Being enrolled there automatically makes you a member of the South Carolina militia."

  "Oh... that sounds tough."

  "Yeah, plus if we ever secede again I'm required to fight for the South."

   ...

  Cue everyone's heads whipping around to stare at her and make the :O face. I was laughing/weeping openly while sliding out of my chair.

Omg wtf bbq

  So remember that dude in that band I stalk on multiple continents that is marginally aware of my existence?

  Just announced a girlfriend on FB.

  This is depressing me way more than it should... Thank God I never showed him those Photoshopped prom pictures!

  Also, while I was sightseeing downtown today, guess who texted me asking about a lunch or coffee date? VU nemesis! There I was, contemplating the remains of James Smithson, when an invitation came from the last person I would have ever expected it from. He was kind of adamant about it, too: lunch or coffee or something, today or sometime next week. Not like an "I'm around this afternoon and if we happen to meet up, that's cool" thing. We rendezvoused at a DuPont Circle Starbucks, after I walked roughly two miles from Chinatown because of Metro delays. Ummm...

  The most unbelievable part is that we had a pretty good time. Also, turns out I wasn't making up his obsession with Arlo Guthrie -- he totally started talking about those awkward moments in thesis class without my saying anything.  We also had a moment that went like this:

  "Whenever my dad and I drive through Oklahoma [he's from TX], we always stop in the Arbuckles at this fried pie place."

 me:  "... by the highway and the Sinclair gas station with the dinosaur?"

  "... yeahhhh...?"

  Keep in mind that the Arbuckle Mountains are more than an hour's drive from my house. Welcome to OK!

  I halfheartedly invited him to weekday intern lunchtime... only I think he might actually show up.

  I just... cchhh... what?

Street in Copenhagen or swank DuPont Circle? It's anybody's guess.

November 1 -- how did we get here?

  Despite my uncharacteristic lack of touristy postings, I am taking pretty good advantage of D.C.'s corner on the museum market. Someday, I will post pictures and adequate descriptions of the adventures to be had therein. Not today, though: I feel asleep at work in my chair resting my head on a metal shelf behind me, while recording the contents of a 1955 reel-to-reel tape for digitization. THIS IS ARCHIVAL HELL.

 So, a list for when I finally regain my senses:

* Museum of American History
* Natural History Museum
* Postal Museum
* Ford's Theatre
* National Gallery of Art
* the Capitol and White House gardens
* Nat'l Archives
* creeping at the House of Reps
* Nat'l Cathedral
* Mount Vernon
* Washington, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr... SO MANY MEMORIALS
* Nat'l Portrait Gallery
* Chiantown

  I also saw VU nemesis again, this time through a window, gliding past me as the orange line train pulled into the station. For awhile as the train decelerated towards a stop, I walked beside it, keeping pace with his window and wearing what must have been an incredulous and horrified expression. Then I realized, what if he looks out? I did a 180 and ran like hell, jumping into the last car.

Ya'll ever rode on the Metro?