D.C.

          I had always hated the D.C. airport, it was all dark and grey and bleak and all that fun stuff. It was the sort of place that you go in and get out of real quick. Upstairs, it was a bit better, with little restaurants and big sunny windows. We were a party of two, my mom and I. We had prepared for not  seeing my Aunt right as we stepped off the plane, for walking around a bit, and getting some lunch, but our preparations apparently weren’t needed, for right as we got out of security, we were flooded with my aunts presence, which believe me is a very omnipresent presence. She hugged us both so hard that I really do think my eyes started to pop out of my head. Then she made this only-my-aunt-could-make-this-noise squeal, and hugged us both again, just as we were recovering.  “I am so glad you are here!” she said while jumping up and down like a 4-year-old. Slightly embarrassed, we tried to pin my aunt down, without much success. Not even noticing our efforts, she went on to explain what we were doing for the rest of our trip. We eventually communicated with her enough to get out of the airport.

          “…And then we are going to this new museum, it’s called the Newseum- no really- and then we’re off to the little café down the street, and after that I was thinking, since it will only be mid afternoonish we could maybe just walk along the streets looking for nothing in particular, just enjoying the nice weather and maybe go to a park or something, we could get a Frisbee and throw it around or perhaps if there was somewhere in particular you wanted to go, we could go there, I hear the international spy museum is supposed to be very cool. Then of course I have to work the next day, but that’s ok because everyone there is super nice, and they have all sorts of lounges and all that, plus down stairs is a huge shopping mall and you could do a little window shopping there even buy something, actually there are some things I need, so you could run some errands if you got bored, but if you don’t want to that’s okay too….” She kept rambling on even as we pulled her out of the door and into the car. I really have noidea how my aunt talks so long without taking a breath. Then she suddenly stopped talking and asked,

          “So, does that sound good to you?”

           I was left a bit speechless because for one, she had finally stopped yabbering and second, I really hadn’t been listening to the specifics, I had just caught a few words here and there. Luckily though, I know from experience that her plans are always fun- exception of a few times where it involved talking to very boring old people or standing in ridiculously long lines- so I nodded my head pretending to have heard every word of her speech and replied, “sure, sounds awesome.”

          “Well, how was your flight? Any turbulence? Any creepy people sitting next to you? I want to know all!” she asked, finally actually communicating with us. Mom spared me from answering, so I instead looked out of the slightly tinted window onto the bright streets of D.C. Some buildings were tall and colorless with important men and women walking in and out all wearing thousand dollar suits and all carrying tiny little briefcases, with who knows what inside of them. Some buildings were the a bit brighter and homely, with colorful windows and doors, inviting people to just come in and look around all a variety of miscellaneous little doo-dads. Some were sleek and avant-garde places with model-thin women walking in and out wearing the highest fashion, which tended to be a bit extravagant to anyone that happened to be looking by, but to them, was their every day wear. Then there was the Smithsonian, the mall, the capitol, the parks and gardens, all the tourist attractions, with school busses and all sorts of people from all over the world coming to the downtown to see these attractions, maybe buy an “I <3 D.C.” t-shirt and a hotdog. Even then I could go on forever trying to explain all the wonders of the nation’s capitol.

           Right now, while I was in the car with my aunt and mom talking about all the news from East Lansing. We were stuck in 5:00 traffic, so for about 10 minutes at a time, I was staring at the same block, watching the people on the streets walk faster than any car was moving. Slowly we made it through the packed downtown streets, and onto the less busy roads of the neighborhoods just on the verge of Maryland. We passed the embassies, then a small liberal arts college, then through the part of town that was all super fancy hotels and boutiques such as Saks Fifth, Neimen Marcus, Jimmy Choo, Gucci, then through some nice shady streets, past a little park, then to 46^th street, where my aunt lives.

          Her house was a tiny little thing, with two huge bushes outside the front hiding the front porch. There was no such thing as a driveway in D.C. unless you lived in some sort of mansion, and this was not a mansion- don’t get me wrong, I like much better than any mansion, for this little house was much nicer and much more loved- so we pulled up in front of the house next to the big tree with its gnarled roots. I got out and stretched my tired legs, then helped get all our junk inside. I was immediately greeted my Sasha and Grant, the two best kitties in whole wide world besides Anna. I went upstairs to put my stuff in the extra room, but then came right back down because I wanted to take a walk, stretch out my legs. Apparently that was my aunt’s plan in the first place, so in minutes we were outside on the worn cement of the house-packed blocks and I thought even though this isn’t home, or even close, and I really have no idea what we are doing this week because I really wasn’t listening when Auntie told us, I am ready to hit this city!