Monday, July 21, 2014

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: A CAPITOL ADVENTURE




July 17, 2014

We're headed to the capitol!  No,  I'm not pretending to be Katness Everdeen. Steve and I are headed up to Wahington D.C. for a business/funzies trip!  We had had been thinking about going to the beach for a weekend this summer, but since his company was purchased by another entity, he's been traveling up to D.C. at least once a month. Since sometime he only finds out a week or two in advance that he needs to be there, it makes planning any other trip kind of hard, so we decided that I'd just tag along and we'd make a weekend out of it!  If Washington DC seems like a weird place for us to go on vacation, it is a little.  But I've only gotten to go there on school trips and have always been on someone else's schedule, and I've wanted to come back on my own terms and look around.

Trust me,  I'm just excited that it isn't Orlando!

We left Butler at the pet resort this morning (and were told his arthritis has advanced to the point of his needing monthly injections.) That makes me so sad. I know he's getting older, and I know he won't live forever, but dang it if I'm not going to do everything I can to keep him around for 20or 30 more years! He's basically my son, so yes, injections will be given! Hell, I'll have his legs removed and replaced with ATV tires if necessary! :)

I went to work for a while to do the last few things that needed to be done before Sunday and went home to finish getting ready to go.  We got through airport security without setting off any alarms and got to our gate with no problems! Since we were there so early, we went to the bar to get a soda. It didn't occur to me until I had been sitting at the bar for some time that I was still wearing my Huntsville Park Baptist
Church polo shirt. It has the name of the church embroidered on the left breast area. Great way to advertise, there, Kelly! Oy.

I almost forgot to take my anxiety pill, but luckily I remembered in plenty of time before actually getting on the plane. I know it probably seems pathetic to some of you that I need pills before flying, but please understand that flying scares me stupid. Dunno why, but it does. Taking these pills keeps me from panic attacks, which is good for me and everyone on the plane with me!

There are 4 stages to my anti-anxiety medication:
1) Taking it - When I know I'm going to be doing something I find stressful, I take my pill and immediately feel better.  I know that there is no way that the medication takes hold so soon, but the knowledge that it will soon be working is enough.
2) Feeling Calmer - The meds start to take control and I actually really start to feel calmer. Everything is good.
3) Things begin to descend into a warm, fuzzy, drunkenness. I start talking too much and laughing at dumb things. Give a couple of shots of tequila, and you'd get the same result. This is why I usually need to take the pills with something caffeinated, because the caffeine keeps me sharp enough to avoid the worst of the drunk feeling. The pills aren't strong, but I have a low tolerance to things like that. Unfortunately, I didn't get caffeine, so by the time we were boarding the plane, I was effectively slightly drunk.
4) Sleep. Sometime light, sometimes hard, and sometimes drooling sleep. Luckily this time, it was light and hopefully without snoring! :) Unfortunately, I missed quite a bit of the audio novel I was listening to (Bill Bryson's At Home) so I'll need to go back and listen to that last part again.

We landed at Dulles 30 minutes ahead of schedule thanks to a tailwind. I've never flown in to Dulles before!  My only complaint about being there was a guy on the tram spent the next few minutes staring at my chest,
like it had a plot he needed to follow. Creepy! Steve has getting through the airport down to a science, so it didn't take us hardly any time at all to get through, grab our car, and get to our hotel! I'm very impressed with his efficiency!

We ordered room service when we got in, which was lovely because I was starved by then, and we fell asleep watching tv.

The adventure begins!

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