Union Station

Every day I purposely exit the metro in Union Station so that I get to walk through the inside of Union Station. I have several reasons for doing this.

1. So that I can stay out of the cold weather for as long as possible- walking through Union Station is at least an entire block that I can preserve the feeling in my fingers, toes, and ears.
2. To see the gobs of 8th graders from all over the country making their required pilgrimage to our nation's capitol. I always know who they are by their matching brightly colored t shirts and the ridiculous cliques of hip girls, nerdy boys, fat goths, etc. They are extremely hard to walk around because they won't split up their clique pack for anything. They also have no idea about the flow of foot traffic.
3. To see the tourists in general. They are always taking pictures of the ceiling or videotaping their girlfriend and it's fun to walk by them really fast with a scowl. "Silly tourists, I work here! Get out of my way." This is also fun to do with the hordes of 8th graders.
4. Window shopping. On my path out of Union Station I pass by an Au Bon Pan (look at the bread and pastries), a Borders, a Nine West (love the shoe displays), an Origins, The Body Shop, a Swarovski crystal store (right now they have a display of crystal gorillas?) a chocolate store, and a weird cart that sells coffee. Some days I enjoy the whiff of perfume waifting from The Body Shop but some days it makes me really nauseous.
   

I am sad because at Christmas when I would come out of the train part and into the big hall there was a HUGE Christmas tree glowing. It made me so happy. There was also a model train set, a player piano, and three giant (GIANT) wreaths out front. Now all that is gone. Yesterday they took down the wreaths and were hammering and fussing to take the train apart. I come out expecting to see the Christmas tree now and since it's not there I get so disappointed.

Merry Christmas, walrus playing saxaphone

There is a dead pigeon in Union Station that I have seen for two days now. It's tucked in a corner. I think it probably got too cold; the highs were in the 30's for the past few days. I feel really sad about it when I see it because I know that the pigeon will end up in the trash and will never be buried in the dirt (unless I do it). At least it won't go to a landfill- all of DC's trash goes to a waste-to-energy incineration plant.

I came home from work early today because I started feeling crummy. I feel even more crummy after trying to sleep it off- I don't know what the deal is. It was great coming home during daylight, though.

My roommate E and I are going to New York City this weekend. I'm super excited, I'm going to stay with my friend C and take on the City. I'm the most excited to see NYC at Christmastime, I've always wanted to be there at this time of year- it seems so romantic and magical. I want to see the big Christmas tree and I also want to become unafraid of the NYC subway. As it stands I fear it more than any other public transportation / most things in life.

Tonight I discovered a big leak in the ceiling of the bathroom. Maybe we'll get a break in rent or something. This past weekend my roommate E's mom came to visit so we finally tried to decorate. We've put it off for EVER. I took the time to really get my room in shape and now I'm really liking it. It looks like Urban Outfitters and Ikea had a fight in here. I'm pleased. I got a really nice wool carved oriental rug at a church yard sale a while back and it looks nice in here. It reminds me of home a lot, even unconsciously because as soon as I put it down I starting throwing my clothes on it. We hung some pictures up in the living room but it's starting to look a little too grown up I think, I like more tacky and hilarious stuff. We did get a silver tinsil fiber optic Christmas tree at Target, so that helps.

I've adopted the huge Christmas tree in Union Station kind of as my Christmas tree for now. It's really big and it's decorated with US and Sweedish (?) flags. They also have a player piano next to it and every time I walk by it it's playing Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. I don't know if that's because I walk by it at the exact same time every day or if it's because the piano only plays 2 or 3 songs. One day maybe I'll wait around and investigate it.

I wish I could tell work stories on here, because that would make this blog 8000x more interesting, but I don't want to jepordize my job. Maybe if there is enough interest I can create a password protected thing. Send me a message or comment if you'd be interested.

I'll leave you with this, because it is basically the funniest thing ever: