Ramblings of a Constipated Mind

I just got back from Washington D.C. Wow. I had a great trip - can't remember the last time in recent months I've been quite as happy.

Cherry dropped me off at the Amtrak station at 5:15 on Saturday morning. I went inside and found out that my train was delayed five hours. Cherry was already gone and wasn't answering his phone (which isn't surprising - he hadn't had a lot of sleep lately, so he was probably unconscious back at the room). I ended up walking to McDonalds for breakfast and sleeping on a station bench. It wasn't a great way to spend five hours, but I survived.

Train food is really overpriced. It was $3.50 for a decent amount of pizza, which was fine. But a can of Mountain Dew cost $1.75. That's insane.

Once I arrived at Union Station, it took a while to find Souwa, but I finally did. I dropped my things off at the hostel I was staying at, and then we went to explore Washington. We visited the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. The Lincoln Memorial just reminded me of movies (Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, etc.). Also, if you stand right at the base of the Washington Monument and look straight up, you can't tell how tall it is. It's pretty cool. I wish I had brought a camera.

We ate some Chinese food for dinner, then decided to go watch a movie. We saw The Constant Gardener...missed the first 5 minutes, but that was okay. I felt Salvadoran again. I wanted to see that out of everything else showing since it's already generating early Oscar buzz. Honestly, I don't know why. It was a pretty good movie, but not excellent. It was interesting, and tackled a subject I don't really know much about (the power of pharmaceutical companies in Africa), but it just seemed like something was missing. The action scenes lacked oomph, but the drama/romance was good - the script had some great dialogue at times. The editing was really intriguing; I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I think I'd recommend it more for its technical strengths rather than storytelling ones, but overall it wasn't bad.

After the movie, I went back to the hostel. Yikes. There's nothing quite like walking into a dark room at 2 in the morning and having various pairs of eyes just glare at you. Stumbling around in the dark isn't fun. I think I only survived because there was a nice Swiss guy who came in around the same time I did and helped me out. He helped me find a place to recharge my phone and lent me his towel in the morning. But I don't plan on staying there again any time soon. Sharing a room with strangers isn't my idea of a good time. Plus, they didn't even have soap or shampoo for the showers. It was extremely basic.

On Sunday, Souwa and I went to Starbucks for breakfast. Then we went with a big group of people to this church in Maryland called Agape or something. It was interesting. Very, very contemporary. They definitely catered to a college crowd. There was a lot of technology used (videos, PowerPoint, etc.) and lots of decorations to present a certain theme. Souwa and I both thought the sermon was too short though. Too basic. Especially when I compare it to Kenneth, who liked to speak a lot and really get into the details of things. Supposedly there's an Agape group here at NCSU; I'll probably check it out just to see what's similar/different.

It seemed like on Sunday we didn't get to do anything we wanted to do. We went to the Old Post Office, but the bell tower was closed for maintenance. Then we went to the Smithsonian, but we were only inside a museum for around ten minutes before it closed. Then we headed over to the west law of the Capitol to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform. All the advertisements I saw said it started at 6:30 - we waited for around two hours, and it still hadn't started yet, so we left.

This is about the time I started getting a serious case of the ouchies. I don't know if I was just sitting in a weird position or what, but I started to have sharp, aching pains in my lower abdomen. It was really weird. I don't think I've ever had any major problems down there before. I kept wondering if it was a bladder infection, or a kidney stone, or testicular cancer or something freaky like that. Basically, I think it was like the male version of menstrual cramps. It was like someone had kicked me in the groin really hard. It hurt to sit still, and it really hurt to move.

We got a cab back to Souwa's room. She got me some Tylenol, we ate some leftover Chinese food, and we watched Memento. Yay. At this point it was really late, and I was still feeling like crap. So we decided I wouldn't go back to the hostel - waste of money or not, I didn't want to deal with it feeling like that. So I slept in Souwa's bed, and she slept on a large bean bag chair, God bless her. I wasn't the only guy in there - Souwa's roommate was snuggled up with her boyfriend. So it didn't feel very awkard, and it sure beat sleeping in a room of strangers.

I woke up this morning feeling much better. Until I stood up. Then the pain was back again. Blegh. As a result, we didn't do much before I left except go to Starbucks. But I'm back now, and I'm okay, I think. If the pain starts up again I'll go to the Health Center, but I think I'll be fine.

So, that's about it. I had a great time in Washington. I'm thinking about saving up my money and maybe going back in a few weeks. We'll see. I'll definitely fly next time.

The only other thing I have to say is about Katrina: Bush sucks. Really. New Orleans is in chaos, and he's not doing much about it. This is going to put the economy in an even worse state of affairs. Not to mention the fact that, as someone pointed out to me, this would be the perfect time for another terrorist attack. If that happens (and even if it doesn't), I think I can smell an impeachment. It's just insane. There aren't many soldiers to help out in New Orleans because they're all off fighting Bush's little war that was supposed to be over a long time. Isn't the USA wonderful?

I don't usually agree with Michael Moore (at least not to such an extreme extent), but when it comes to this situation I think he pretty much summed it up with this letter to the President:

"Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore"

I don't think I'd go as far as to suggest Bush's lack of action is due to racism, but yeah, that pretty much sums things up. No doubt it's going to take years to get out of this economic crisis. Which means it's going to affect me; a bad economy isn't a good thing to have when you're a college student not making much money.

Speaking of which: Washington is expensive. I took around $130 dollars with me for the weekend. I came back with $1. I have no idea where it all went. It's like all my money was mysteriously sucked up by the flailing economy.

I have classes tomorrow. Blegh.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Employee of the month is a good example of how somebody can be both a winner and a loser at the same time."
--Demetri Martin

"My belt holds my pants up, but the belt loops hold my belt up. So which one's the real hero?"
--Mitch Hederg