Funny Elisa Video

Recognize one of the models? I DO! -Mike

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Proud of My Country and Proud of Myself

For those of you who have been patiently waiting an update to how my Nanny Diaries adventure ended, have no fear, I will get around to writing about it soon. BUT, I have something a bit more exciting to share at the moment and its going to be a long one…

It was Monday night, January 19^th and Mike and I had been discussing possible places to watch the Inauguration on Tuesday. We had decided Times Square would probably be the most exciting, after actually going to DC of course. We were mad at ourselves for not going into Times Square the night the election results were announced and we promised ourselves we would go somewhere for Inauguration to share in the excitement. The more I was thinking about it, the more I wished we had found a way to go to DC, but I had thought that if you didn’t have a ticket you couldn’t even get close. I sit down on my computer and start googling Inauguration info, I eventually stumble upon a map of DC showing where people can and can’t go for the ceremony and parade. Whoa, I had no idea that the general public could go onto the National Mall! Hmmm… the wheels in my head start turning and I start to feel spontaneous. Many of you know, I am not the greatest at being spontaneous; actually I’m terrible at it. I am a planner, I like to have things fully thought out and prepared well ahead of time. But this was going to be an incredible moment in history and I feel like I’m so close to the action, why not go and be a part of it.

It is 5:00pm. I start searching to see if there are any bus or train tickets left for DC that leave late that night or early in the morning. Everything is sold out or really expensive. Mike comes over to my computer and can tell that I’m up to something, then he notices the DC map I’m looking at. I tell him I just really wish we would have planned to go to DC and I was trying to find a last minute way to get down there.

Mike: Too bad we don’t have a car, or could borrow Becky and Joe’s. (Our friends who live upstairs)

Elisa: But they’re already going to Inauguration, remember?

Mike: I wonder if they’ve left yet…

We hear footsteps upstairs Mike and Elisa look at each other mischievously.

Elisa: Yes, but they are going with their friend Joel, we don’t even know if they have room in their car.

Mike: Let’s go ask!

Mike, Elisa, and Zoka walk upstairs and knock on the door, Becky answers.

Mike: Hey Becky, what are you up to?

Becky: Our friend Joel is here and we’re just getting our stuff ready to go down to DC for Inauguration…

Elisa and Mike exchange another mischievous glance.

Becky: … do you guys wanna come?

Mike and Elisa look at each other and smile, excited squeals come from Elisa and Becky. The time is 5:45pm.

So that is how it happened. The next few hours are spent frantically planning, packing, calling our dog sitter friends to take Zoka for the night, and calling and begging my wonderful cousin Sandra who lives in the DC area to let us crash at her place. Sandra (and Russ) graciously say that we can get to their house late that night and crash for a few hours before taking the Subway into DC.

At 8:30pm we are crammed into Becky and Joe’s two-door car with bags of warm clothes and food. We are on our way! We arrive in Bethesda (a suburb outside of DC) where Sandra lives around 1am. We park at the parking garage next to the Metro station and then have a ten minute walk to Sandra’s house. A sleepy looking Russ and Sandra greet us and show us to our beds, we give them bottles of wine to thank them for their last minute generosity. We finally get to sleep around 1:30ish with the plan to wake up at 3:15. The metro starts running at 4am and we want to be on the first train to make sure we can get as close to Obama as possible.

On just over an hour of sleep, we wake up, pile on layers and layers of clothes, and head out of Sandra’s house by 3:30am. For the record, I am wearing two pairs of socks, snow boots, long underwear under my jeans under my sweat pants, 6 shirts/sweatshirts, a down jacket, scarf, earmuffs, hat, hood, and gloves.

We walk to the Metro station and find it already crowded with other crazy Obama fans. We catch the first train into the city and are lucky enough to be the last stop to get seats on the train. On the 20 minute ride into DC we are grateful to have an opportunity to rest our legs as the train becomes a sardine can. We get off on the stop as close to the area we believe to be the entrance we can use to get into the Mall. Its around 4:30 in the morning as we start to wander the streets of DC navigating amongst the already crowding streets, police, and blocked streets. None of the maps we had printed off the internet or the ones we grabbed out of the paper that morning were very helpful in helping us determine the best entry point onto the Mall for those of us who did not have a ticket. I felt like a rat in a maze as we continually were being told by police that we couldn’t go down the streets leading to the National Mall. After over a mile of walking we had made our way all the way south of the Mall and found an entry near the Washington Monument.

There are already streams of people walking towards the Mall and the Capital Building. We have no way to know how full it is at this point but just starting walking towards the Capital to see how close we get. It is about 5:30am at this point and we are still walking, the Capital Building is getting closer and closer! We finally come to a point where the crowd has stopped and people are staking out their patch of dirt. It is just before 6am, five hours to go until the excitement starts, now we just wait and attempt to stay warm.

More coming soon … Mike may finish the second half of the blog … pictures coming soon too!

Mike’s peanut thoughts on a plane.

When did the airline industries get so bad that they could no longer afford the honey in their honey roasted peanuts? Even crazier, when did Delta “discontinue” ginger ale. The poor ginger root’s entire market share was destroyed with the stoke of an airline executive’s pen. How many other mainstream items come with ginger root?

Upon inquiring further, my flight attendant “Jane” stated that Delta is getting back the airline’s staple root drink in May. Which only leads me to think about how it takes just shy of five months to get pop back on a plane.

So I sit on my flight with water and my two bags of peanuts.

Jane, however, has my back. A few moments later, she comes back and says, “here, drink this and tell me what you think.” It looks like ginger ale, smells like ginger ale, tastes like ginger ale… “Thanks!” I say with my ginger needs fulfilled. “It’s not ginger ale…” Jane leans in a bit to overcome the constant hum of the plane’s engines, “… it’s Sprite with a little Coke.” To my surprise… it really tastes the same.

“Now, what about a secret recipe for getting my peanuts honey roasted?” I respond. Jane smiled a bit, said she’s got nothing, and left. The previous statement came out without even a slight innuendo... I swear… or rather hope.

Happy New Year from an Alternate Universe

Thank you all for coming to read my blog, I apologize the entries have been far apart lately. This is just a short entry to say that I have not forgotten about my blog, in fact many times throughout the day I write parts of my blog in my head, although they don't necessarily make it to the page.

It is hard to remember the last time my NYC life felt "normal," meaning I was mainly only working one job and taking classes. Twelve hours after returning home from a nice but short trip to Seattle for Christmas, I was back to babysitting the Saudi Arabian children. They are here for another week (at the minimum) and I am now with them every single day (before I was alternating with another girl). At 6-7 hours a day, seven days a week, plus my 20hrs per week online job, plus trying to fight a sinus infection, I have found very little time for anything else.

I promise to write lots of stories of my crazy babysitting adventures as soon as I get back to regular life ... which is hopefully soon...

Till then, enjoy the start to a new year!