August 2008: Ms. Perez goes to Washington. Eventually.

Last summer I took two days off from my internship to fly out to Washington DC to go to Roxana and Eric's wedding, which was taking place on Friday, August 1st. I had decided to take the opportunity to visit everyone from my pre-grad school life, so I scheduled a 6 am flight on Thursday, and scheduled a crazy afternoon of lunch with former co-workers, drinks with Rob, more drinks with Nicole, and dinner with Kyle. My inability to leave my apartment on time, combined with the mistaken belief that Midwestern Airlines was located in the Lindberg terminal of the Minneapolis Airport led to me missing my flight. I literally sprinted up to the gate and the plane was still there, but since they had already closed the door, the gate agent refused to let me get on the plane. Some tears, fury, and rescheduling later, I was booked on a flight that left Minneapolis 4 hours later. When combined with a two-hour layover in Milwaukee, this completely destroyed my carefully planned Thursday schedule, so I missed out on lunch and drinks. The gate agent's advice to me? "Next time you should plan better!" Really? Thanks for the tip...

After finally making it to DC, I got in my rental car and drove out to my hotel. As soon as I pulled up, I immediately started looking for alternate sleeping arrangements. Somehow, I had made reservations at a hotel that looked like a set for a horror movie. If something were to happen to me, I doubted very much my body would ever be found. I eventually found new accomodations in Tyson's Corner and fortunately the rest of my weekend was a lot smoother.

Highlights of the weekend included:

Thursday

• Travel hell
• Dinner with Kyle

Friday

• Closing my Chevy Chase bank account, after months of non-use
• Lunch with some of my former co-workers (unfortunately Maryellen, Jeff and Ron P were unable to join us)
• A fish pedicure! You stick your feet in a tank and the fish nibble away the dead skin. Let's just say I don't plan to do it again.
• Roxana and Eric's wedding (::tear::)

Saturday

• Brunch with the newlyweds and their families
• Shopping at Potomac Mills
• Baseball game at the new Nationals Stadium

Sunday

• Lunch at Bertucci's

The weekend was lots of fun, the wedding was beautiful and I was very glad to see everyone. I don't think I necessarily realized it at the time, but since graduation is now right around the corner, I have started thinking about the whole process of moving to a new place and having to say good-bye to all your friends. And I have to say, even though I don't miss my old job, and I probably won't miss being in a classroom that much, I do/will miss all the great people I've met along the way (::sniff sniff::). And that means I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with people!