D.C.

          I had always hated the D.C. airport, it was all dark and grey and bleak. 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. We had been reafy 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 no idea 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, telling my aunt about man in back of us who was snoring very loudly. So I looked out of the slightly tinted window onto the bright streets of D.C., taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells.

          The streets were their usual loud atmosphere, car horns, people chit-chat on the sidewalks, bike bells, sometimes even someone yelling out of the window, “are ya color blind? Green means go!!!”

          Smells sadly hadn’t changed since I had been there last either. Exhaust from cars mixed with sweat, coffee, and a little smoke. The smell wasn’t strong, just enough so you could just taste it on the tip of your tongue.

          As for the sights, well, there was certainly a lot to feast your eyes on. 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 was their every day wear. Then there was the Smithsonian, the mall, the capitol, the parks and gardens, the restaurants (some acclaimed to be the presidents favorite), with school busses and all sorts of people from all over the world coming to the downtown to see the attractions. Then 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 hot 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 packed streets walk faster than we were moving. Slowly we made it through the dreadful downtown streets and onto the less busy roads just on the verge of Maryland. We passed the embassies, my favorite being the Egyptian one. Then an empty (spring break) small liberal arts college, then continued through the part of town that was all super fancy hotels and boutiques such as Saks Fifth, Neimen Marcus, Jimmy Choo, Gucci. After all that craziness, we made it to the nice shady streets. Finally we passed a little park, and came 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 are no such thing as driveways in D.C. unless you live in a mansion, and this was not a mansion- don’t get me wrong, I like much better than any mansion. We pulled up in front of the house next to a big tree with 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 (my cat). Sasha was probably the calmer of the two, but she was tough, with a little snaggle-tooth jutting from her bottom lip, long gray hair, and intelligent green eyes that seemed always to be looking you over and carefully examining you. Grant was definitely the stranger one. He had short tiger striped hair that was gray, and he always liked anyone he met, not even bothering to watch their every move as Sasha did.

           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 strolling at a leisurely pace, and I thought even though I really have no idea what we are doing this week, I am ready to hit this city!