Waiting in DC

I am sitting in a cafe in Washington DC across the street from the Woodley Park Metro station. I have no wireless and must wait for an hour and a half before Noreen shows up after work. I flew into BWI around one and made the quick decision to wait for Brandy in DC instead of Baltimore; the ticket is only a few bucks more and DC is more interesting and less explored by me than Balto. It also turned out to be more convenient b/c Brandy picked up some riders from Craigslist and they are going to DC, hence one stop instead of two.
The flight was my first on Southwest and was quite nice. Despite my significant experience in traveling, sometimes I still make absurd luggage choices. Two small, tightly packed backpacks and a laptop satchel are not the ideal choice when lots of walking transit is expected. I chose this method as opposed to the large backpack b/c I didn't want to check any bags, but didn't consider just how crippling it would be to my transit. There's no chance in hell that I'm leaving this coffee shop before Noreen arrives.
On Wednesday after I made my last post I went to the volunteer center to find out what I could do without going into the field. The answer was not much. It was a veritable convention of retired people standing around drinking coffee and eating donuts. Since it was obvious that I was not interested in these activities and actually wanted to do something, they tried their damnedest, maybe, but were only able to produce some annoyingly mundane busy work such as throwing out boxes and sweeping the floor, which didn't really rate high on my list since it is a warehouse floor. You don't sweep warehouses and, if you do, they raise such a cloud of dust, probably nasty, that I might as well have been out in the field. Thus I left after about an hour and a half and took some lovely back roads to Madison. After eating of course. The roads were curvy, hilly and desolate. I only saw a handful of cars along the way.
I called Jeff and Terra about half an hour before I arrived in Madison telling them that I was coming and would like to stop by their apartment off of Old Sauk Rd in Middleton. When I showed up Terra was still flustered by my late notice and getting ready, heh. We chilled out there and then I headed into the city to have dinner and meet up with Hannah and unfortunately, not Melissa. I had a tasty Walleye sandwich at the Weary Traveler and headed over to Hannah's place on S. Broom St. It was funny being back in a college house, especially one occupied by a graduate. Her roommate has the best bedroom in the world. The two of them share the attic of a house of six people where they have their own little living room and a closet, Hannah has a large bedroom and the roommate has a cubby hole for the bed. It's actually just an old crawl space that some creative soul decided would be ideal for sticking another human. The ceiling is short and veed and and a full-sized bed just fits inside with wall all around. The door in is about 4 feet tall and has no knob, just a string that you pull to close it behind you. It's like a little tomb and I would love it. It even has its own little window with a view of John Nolan Dr and the lake.
After picking up in Monona her boyfriend and the keys to Shaunna's place, where I would be crashing, we met Jeff and Terra and her friend Dana at Genna's. We also attempted to meet up with Charlie and Nolan, both of whom lived on my floor of the dorms, but were unsuccessful. After a few drinks we went over to Nachspiel, which is a bar which is new since my departure. On our way in who should we see smoking outside but Andrey. Andrey is a Russian guy I used to live with and is quite a character. I had forgotten that he had moved back to Madison and hadn't called him.
It was a nice evening with old friends and I am glad that I chose Wednesday instead of Monday to go. It was the first time Hannah and I had hung out unchaperoned by Jennifer. She is a good friend of Jen's and has become friends with me, but we had never hung out before and it was pretty cool.
Getting out Thursday morning presented me with more work than I had expected, so I wasn't able to hang out in Madison at all, but that's fine since I will be coming back next week. I did get find a Jamaican place in Monona that has a very delicious buffet for about $7.
That night was nice and calm as Sonja and I just relaxed around her place in the godforsaken Chicago suburbs. Thankfully she will be living in a real place in the city when I come back next week.
Today was a myriad of transit options as I rode in car, Metra, el-train, plane, MARC train, Metro, and will be driving again once Brandy gets here. My body also gave me some good news today, feeling better than I did when I woke up yesterday, although yesterday was horrible, so today is only good by comparison. Hopefully I will kick this nasty cold soon, ideally before I make my overnight run for Louisville and then Chicago at the end of the weekend.
By the way, Washington Metro escalators are the slowest in the world. Good God. It is also the most complicated damn fare extraction process I have ever encountered. You have to know which stop you are getting off on, then find it on a chart on the machine, put your money in, push up and down arrows to get the correct fare, provided you are only going one place and want your change. Then the important part, after you put your card through the entrance gate DO NOT throw it away. You will need to insert it again as you exit at your destination to show that you haven't underpaid by $0.10, God forbid.
Well, the coffee shop closed half an hour ago, so I must leave and sit outside for awhile, uuhhngg.