So there are only 3 1/2 weeks of my time left here in DC, and I would have to say it has been QUITE an experience. I haven't had the time to write on here in a while, and if I wrote EVERYTHING that has happened since the last time I posted on here my stories would be way too long and no one would read them. I probably wouldn't even read them. Anyway here's a FEW stories I would like to share with you all... By the way, these might just be the most interesting stories yet.
Grocery Trip/Tour of DC
One day after class I decided to go to the grocery store because my food supply was getting low. As I'm walking down the street I see a man sitting at the bus stop. I was halfway down the sidewalk and I was planning to turn left on the street corner ahead to get to the local market. Out of the corner of my eye I see the man across the street from me suddenly stand up. He starts yelling out at me "Hey girl!" Not thinking that he was referring to me I kept walking down the street (there were lots of people out at this time around 3 on a sunny Friday afternoon). Then just as I come to the corner to turn I see the man standing right across the street from me on the other corner yelling some very inappropriate things at me. People started looking at me, thinking I knew him or something, so I quickly averted my eyes and my path. I walked at least 5 blocks from where I was going to turn down the street just to make sure I wasn't being followed. I got to the store and after happily purchasing my groceries (yet still feeling a little violated and very unsafe) I took the longest way home possible (the scenic route). If I've learned one thing out here on these streets, its to never take the same path home.
New Pope... New Hope
On March 13 the world laid eyes on the newest pope: Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen. I was put on Pope watch for my office, and for some reason was really excited when his name was finally dropped online and I could announce it to my editor and the other random guy who works in our tiny office. Maybe I was bored. What is the pope really gonna do for me? Anyway, at work on this day I had a second phone interview with a source. She shared some really valuable and personal information with me and I had to go home and deal with the heaviness of the information that she had just shared with me. It was on this day when I realized that the job/profession I have chosen will sometimes leave me feeling heavy. Yet I know I can do it. This was just the first time someone had shared heavy confidential information with me and I had to break it in an original way in my work. It was both beautiful and terrifying.
FYI: Look out for my feature story on Donna Rice Hughes and her work with Enough is Enough....
The Non- New York Wedding
So, here at the program in our apartments we have lots of fun. We joke with one another, we chide one another and we also comfort one another when it is needed.
One of the biggest jokes or at least really stupid things we have done was say that one of the guys here in the program (who shall remain unnamed) and I were getting married. If you follow me on Twitter, you can find it, (in the words of Lady Gaga... our bad romance). His Twitter account was foiled with a fake Twitter account some girls that I'm quite close to made for him. We all joked about it. It left him and I doing a weird dance (not literally) around one another for the week before he, I and the two other girls were going to New York for a weekend getaway. Our wedding was supposed to take place in New York, his bachelor party at the Nike store, and my bachelorette party at some place in New York. But the night before we left it all went downhill.
We were in my apartment and I was helping him edit one of his articles. He refused to understand the purpose of a semicolon. He shoved them (semicolons) off as nonsense. I was done. He said it was over. I said it was over.
The wedding had been called off. I felt I could move on.
In New York, we persisted in being friends. The girls and I entered our room and sitting in the office chair of our very nice hotel room was his very attractive friend. I fell automatically in love with his friend's good looks and tattoo. The attractive friend turned out to be a really awesome person.
The guys slept on the floor and us 3 girls slept in the King size bed. It was really really comfortable compared to the beds at the apartment. Absolutely nothing scandalous happened. It was GREAT. We walked 3.8 miles to the original Macy's we took the ferry to Staten Island and saw the Statue of Liberty on the way. We walked through the NBC studios where Jimmy Fallon is filmed. We visited the Trump building and went to Nike-land. We went to Central Park (a small corner of it). We went to Times Square. We ate at a random 5 star Brazilian restaurant that we went to on a whim. We saw the underground Apple store. We visited like at least 10 Starbucks. Us girls shopped on 5th avenue. It was LITERALLY a dream come true.
A Piece of Home
About a week ago a friend from home came to visit me. With my busy schedule, and her on spring break we were able to schedule in a quick visit. She came, I told her about the fake engagement, she laughed. We took a picture. It was golden. I'm glad she came to visit. It was just the piece of home I needed.
My Time at the Hospital
So getting sick happens.
About a week ago I noticed something was a little off. I wont go into too much detail.
I was on a field trip to the Washington Post with my class when I decided I was going to get myself checked out by a doctor. I figured I could do this in DC, because I wasn't in a third world country, and I knew I was going to either have to have some medication prescribed or a minor surgery.
Turns out the diagnosis was better than I thought.
I went to the doctor with my roommate and one of the girls who lives next door.One of our advisors who is pregnant had directed me to the hospital that we walked to, saying that she gets all her pre-natal care done there, and that the facility is brand new and really nice. I still was scared. I signed into the hospital, got all my insurance stuff taken care of and then I had to wait for about 45 minutes They called my name and my roommate asked if I wanted her to go in with me. I said yes because I was unsure of what it would be like.
My conclusion: California needs to step up their medical facilities.
They put me in a HUGE room with a TV. I was told that I needed to change clothes, and after I did so, they provided me with a nice pre-warmed blanket. It was awesome and really comfortable.
Medicine was quickly prescribed and I am now in good health, but this hospital visit is a hospital visit I will never forget.
Invisible Institute: A Hot Mess
First time I was lost in DC I was looking for a place called the Hudson Institute. I was RSVP'd to go to and cover an event on a book about religious persecution. I was dressed and ready to go with my backpack, suit jacket, and flat shoes. I hopped on the Metro and got off at the right stop. I walked around trying to find the place, going into establishments nearby asking if people knew where it was (they didn't). It was cold, I was exhausted and late rushing trying to find it when I'm walking by a Starbucks and saw two very attractive young men (possibly from George Washington University, which was nearby). Feeling fancy and all grown up in my suit, I reached to flip my braids back so they could notice me, and I quickly realized that the ends of a few of my braids were stuck in the shoulder strap on my backpack. I attempted to try to play it off, but I'm sure someone saw. If not, God got a really good laugh. This left me feeling lost and even more horrible because I didn't know where I was and I had just possibly made myself look like a moron in front of everyone on the sidewalk at that moment. At this point I was unsure if I should even go because I was late, but I decided to keep asking around and eventually found the place. It was in an 12 story office building, right around the corner from the Starbucks. I took the elevator to the 6th floor and found that they had just started the event as I arrived. Once the event was over, I was going to hop back on the metro home and with my great luck, I couldn't find it. I walked into a CVS because I realized that I was going to have to get change and hop onto a bus instead. I got change and waited. I sat in the little glass box that is to shield people from the frigid DC air and waited. In the 40 degree cold I waited. and waited. and waited. For about 40 minutes I was at the stop. The buses were running late that day, but I made it home just in time to make dinner with my roommates.
(Keep your eyes peeled for my articles, and another blog post on my trip to Baltimore to experience a Palestenian Orthodox church service. Also look for my blog posts at dancingheadlines.wordpress.com, or you can follow me on Twitter at @TonikaReed or @DanceInTheNews)
Blessings,
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