Backdating extravaganza!

I've been pretty lazy in October. I've started a bunch of entries, but need to go through and finish them. Check past my last Chicago posting for all the other fun things that have been going on in DC this month, especially with people visiting!

Updated: Added this post about flying on a corporate jet.

Back in the Windy City

I flew to Chicago this past weekend. Unfortunately, the timing of my friend Derek's wedding did not coincide with Northwestern Homecoming. This will be the first time in 4 years that I haven't been back. This also means no Alex Ross Halloween party for me.

I caught an earlier flight than scheduled on Friday, and I headed over to the Chicago Cultural Center to get tickets for the Haunted "L" Ride. Chicago has all sorts of festivities for Chicagoween. Hooray to a well-organized and funded Department of Tourism. The theme for this year, Pirates! Apparently, when marauding pirates tell you they are going to loot all of your belongings, you should clap and cheer. They will have a change of heart and not pillage your village.

Afterwards, Julie, Brian, and I hit Pat's Pizza for some delicious thin-crust. Brian then went home to rest up for the GMATs the next day. (Which he aced. Good job, Brian!) Julie and I went to see I "Heart" Huckabees at Piper's Alley. It was an interesting movie. I haven't read that much existentialism, so I'm sure I missed some of the finer points of the movie. Julie liked it and existentialism is her favorite school of philosophical thought.

For Saturday, the plan was to get the rental car, go to Evanston for some Walker Brothers for lunch, and then head to Wisconsin for the wedding. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain, and when Dave and I got there, there was a very long line of wet people packed inside a small waiting area. We headed to Cross Rhodes instead. After a quick lunch there, I got to the Milwaukee area in plenty of time for Derek and Stephanie's wedding. The only people I knew from high school were Gabe and Tom, both of whom were standing in the wedding. I met some of Stephanie's friends from grad school, and much fun was had by all. Of note was the margarita fountain at the reception.

I drove back to Chicago after the wedding to meet up with Julie, Paulette, and Jeremy at the Hideout for a Life During Wartime dance party. It was a fun time. PBR was on sale for $2, and it seemed to be the drink of choice for the evening. Jeremy also won the raffle and got a t-shirt, LP, and other goodies. We got some late night pizza after the bar closed at 3 am. I had a set of foil-wrapped torillas in my purse from the reception that I had in reserve for late-night munchies.

The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed to return the rental car. Julie and I headed to the Handlebar (hooray for Chicago's bike-themed restaurant!) for brunch with Jeremy and some of his med school friends. I had the Black Beans Maduro, which was quite excellent. I hope to be able to make my own "Layers of fried, sweet plantains, brown rice, jack cheese & beans with a chipotle-tomato sauce" someday! I can't wait to go back again!

We wandered around the Wicker Park area before I had to catch the El to O'Hare. I got a really, really ugly polyester dress from the Brown Elephant to wear as a costume for Halloween. We'll see if I can pull off 70's Housewife chic.

JV Death Penalty

I got up very early this morning to go to the Supreme Court. Today was their last day in session in October, so I figured I should go see it while I was here. Unfortunately, they were hearing oral arguments for the juvenile dealth penalty case, or rather "Can a State Impose the Death Penalty on Someone Who Was Under the Age of 18 When He Committed the Capital Crime?" It would've been very interesting to see, but they didn't let very many people in from the lines outside. Some people had sleeping bags and looked like they'd camped out to be there. There had been enough "official" people that they filled the courtroom.

That night, I headed over to the National Building Museum for the National Academies Employee Recognition Night. It was very fancy, and nicely done. Thanks to the Academies for putting in such an effort! They even had gel candles in champagne glasses to give us as a party favor.

Corporate Jet

The fun never stops. I flew in my first Corporate Jet today to Penn State. It's a Citation owned by Northrup Grumman. I went up there for work to participate in a talk by people on my committee CDEW (Committee on Diversity in the Engineering Workforce) to the freshman engineering class at Penn State. Every year, a corporation sponsers them to work on an engineering design project. This year it was Northrup Grumman, and the freshman are going to work on developing new content for EngineerGirl!. At the end of the semester, there's a contest and we'll get to judge the winners. Hooray for free content!

Anyway, the jet seated 6 people comfortably, 9 people not so comfortably. The bathroom stall converts into a seat. It was a pretty quick trip up ~ 1 vs. the 4 hour drive it would've been. They gave us sandwiches and wine on the way back, which was pretty nice.

We flew up to Penn State and and back from the BWI area. I got back to Union Station on an Amtrak train around 10 pm and ended up catching a metro train going the wrong way from where I live. I hadn't been paying attention to the signs nor the stops until a long way the wrong way. I did eventually get home after I figured out I needed to get on a different train. Long day.

More fun! Filibuster!

We got up and headed out to Maryland for lunch with relatives at vegan Chinese restaurant called the Vegetable Garden. We had this huge 4 course lunch based on book. It was a very good lunch. They used lots of fancy mushrooms. Afterward, we headed to the National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress. They'd run out of free mesh bags by the time we got there, but I did get a nice poster. On the way from the Metro to the National Mall, we met up with Chris and Shelly, and noticed that ESPNzone had the score for the NU game. We were playing Indiana, and the score was tied. They'd just gone into the first overtime. We stayed to use the bathroom, but left as soon as we saw Indiana score. Little did we know that NU would go on to win the game in 2nd overtime. Go Cats!

At the National Festival for the book, Brian Flyg met up with us to hang out with Dave Smith. We hit the Museum of American History. They had a big exhibt on Vote, The Machinery of Democracy, which was cool. I also enjoyed the transportation exhibit American on the Move that featured a 1950s era Chicago "L" train. Afterwards, we were walking around and noticed that the Senate was still in session, so we headed over to watch. I had to wrangle some gallery passes, but managed to convince a Connecticut Senate staffer to give us a bunch. We watched Senator Mary Landrieu speaking, effectively filibustering the Senate. She was unhappy that the corporate tax bill didn't include her original funding for support for members of the Reserves and National Guard. She read her letter to the President (of the US) on the matter as well as letters she'd received from people in the Reserves and the National Guard. It was really cool to see the Senate in action, even it was only her there to speak. By now, we were starving so we headed to La Loma's for dinner. I had heard that the Mexican food in DC isn't the best, and eating there confirmed that observation.

After dinner, we headed to Dupont Cicle. We hit Kramers and decided to go do some people watching in the cirle. Katy, Shelly, and I tried out the different little perfume bottles my grandmother had give me earlier. I think we're in the wrong generation for most of the Christian Dior perfumes. Rich also had his first Krispy Creme Doughnut.

Sunday arrive, and Katy, Dave and I head to Eastern Market. We walk around for a bit, but arrive too early for the Market Lunch, so we headed to brunch at Bread and Chocolate. Katy was looking for a present for her mom, so we hit the National Building Museum. They had an exhibit on concrete. While that may sound kinda dull, it wasn't. Ever see transparent concrete? It's awesome. I have an entirely different view on it now that I've seen how it is really Liquid Stone.

At the Musuem, I was trying to fulfill my mobile obsession as well. They had tons of mobiles in the first shop, but they were unfortunately too expensive. I just think one would look really nice in an office. One of the people in my department has a cool mobile hanging in her office which look like little dentist mirrors. She got it at an art fair from the Mobile Guys.

Visit weekend #1 - Night Siteseeing

Dave, Rich and Katy came to visit me this weekend. They took off from Princeton after the PACM student seminar. They got to DC in time to watch the 2nd half of the Presidential debate while I picked up from indian food for us from the Capitol Hill Tandoori Grill.

Afterwards, we headed to the Hawk and Dove for some drinks. On the way there, Dave and Katy spotted the Capitol Building. I noticed that the light was on in the dome, and thought that I'd remembered reading that when the light was on, Congress was still in session. We headed over to the House side, where we realized that if a flag is flying on the side of the Senate or the House, it means that they are in session. We stopped in to the House office buildings and got everyone gallery passes, and we waited in the Gallery for some action. Unfortunately, the House had taken an extended recess from 12:00 midnight to after1:00 am. After sitting and marveling for a while, and meeting a very strange man who expounded on plural marriages, we decided to move on to somewhere else. Dave was satisfied to see that our lawmakers were still hard at work on a Fri. night/early Saturday morning. The guards told us that they'd probably adjorn the session around 4 am, as they had been all week long. We didn't want to wait that long.

So, we headed to the Einstein statue at the National Academies of Science building. There were still people out getting their pictures taken with Einstein around 2 am. While we were at it, we figured we'd hit the Lincoln Memorial too, since it was just across the street. At night, everything is lit up and the crowds of tourists are sleeping. There were about a dozen people milling around at the monument, but mostly young, high school aged people. We drove past the White House, but couldn't really see it. That is not lit up at night. We finally got home and got to bed after 3 am. My plans for an early start the next morning would need to be readjusted...

A try for the House

This is the last week that Congress is in session. They're trying to pack in all the business they can before they fly back to campaign for reelection. Sarah and I decided to head over to see the House of Representatives. We figured, we can leisurely stroll over after lunch and then watch for an hour or two like we had at the Senate. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the place would be packed with tourists. We only got to see 5 minutes of debate, and even then, the chamber was mostly empty with a few people lounging around. What's cool, though is that they have these panels on the wall that are blue. They match the rest of the walls in terms of pattern, but they are really electronic screens that are used to display vote totals when there is a roll call vote.

Dinner Club - Ethiopian

I decided that I should try to start up a Dinner Club or some other regular social outing for the rest of the graduate fellows. So, the first stop was for Ethiopian food in Adams Morgan. I picked Meskerem. I was joined by Emily, Emilie, and Richard. It was a fun time, and good food was had by all. It's fun to be food adventurous! To learn more about Ethiopian food, read this!

Unfortunately, I'm already booked by meetings and other such things the next few weeks, but I'll try to figure something out. One of the Fellows is Greek, so I told her she should pick out a good Greek restaurant for us to go too. Hopefully, we'll get to that before the end of the fellowship.

I also biked to Adams Morgan from work! 3 miles to work, and 3 miles to Adams Morgan. Not too shabby. It's a nice trip. I got there pretty early and walked around in my grungy sweatpants. There are several very "trendy" restaurants in the area. You know the kind that have tables that light up and weird cuttlery?

Seafood and Librarians

Sarah pointed out the Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood to me. I informed Rich that we can no longer each shrimp or farm-raised salmon. He was cool with it. People are unhappy with the ways that fish are farmed. They produce a lot of "waste," and when it is all concentrated in a small space, bad things happen.

I also hit my last hearing for now. I attended the E-Rate hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. McCain was there to preside, and him, Rockefeller, and Snowe really ripped into the Feds for withholding the money to help schools and libraries internet access. Apparently, the people in charge were forced to liquidate a lot of funds, thereby creating a loss of millions due to the penalties and changes in interest rates.

This was also the most librarian hearing I've been to in DC yet. There were several people from the ALA there, and I had a chance to talk to them. I'll go to the ALA Washington Office while I'm here and try to get more involved with ALA as a whole. I'm going to be a part of it all, someday!

College Admissions Post-Michigan

I attended a press conference today given by AAAS and NACME for a new book they'd put out about how to handle college admissions in the "post-Michigan" era. This refers to the Supreme Court decision that Michigan can use affirmative action in college admissions, or rather, that diversity is an important factor in admissions decisions.

The book is called Standing Our Ground: A Guidebook for STEM Educators in the Post-Michigan Era. The press conference was really interesting, and big name people were there to present information. It'll be really interesting to see how colleges handle the need for diversity on campuses.

Felting

I went to my local yarn shop StitchDC because I wanted to try a new project. You know, something that was different from a scarf. I was going to try to do the Chinese Charm Purse out of the Stitch 'N Bitch book, but apparently, the yarn used in that pattern is no longer available. While I was there, I spotted a free pattern for the Booga Bag. So, I called Julie, asked her about the color of her winter jacket, and picked out some pink/brown/orange yarn (Autumn Roses) called Ara to make this bag. Hooray, purse!

Doing the Impossible. Go Cats!

Last night, I met up with Brian Flyg for dinner out in the Pentagon City area. It'd been a long day, from having to go to the National Academies main building by 8 am for the council meeting. We had dinner and caught up, but neglected to go anywhere to watch the Northwestern vs. Ohio State night game. I'd received email notices about the game, but figured that since we were playing Ohio State, that we'd get steamrolled like we had for the past 33 years. So, oblivious to football, we chatted; and I stopped by Chopper and Sarah's to see how Chopper was faring after his scooter Cannonball across the country.

Afterwards, I met up with Tina at the Bottom Line where she'd gone with her rugby teammates after winning a few games. They had some good music on, there there were the few requisite sketchy guys trying to get girls to dance with them. I ended up leaving early around midnight to get home.

I woke up early the next morning, and had an email from Philip with congratulations about the NU game. I thought at first that he was joking, but no, it was truth! We'd beaten Ohio State 33 to 27! And I had MISSED IT!!! Ahhh!!! I called and woke up Rich and Jeffrey with the news! Rich and I then called Melissa and Todd (slightly hoarse) in Evanston. They'd been at the game and had several "experts" in the area of football tell them that it was a great day for an upset! Because of the win, were were named the National Team of the Week, as well as having the game itself become an ESPN Instant Classic. I'll be able to watch the game! (It was also the most watched game ever on ESPN2).

NAE Annual Meeting

This weekend was the NAE Annual Meeting. I got to sit in on the Executive Council meetings prior to the start of the Annual Meeting. It was really cool meeting all of these highly distinguished people. I sat next to a member at dinner who is on the President's Council for the National Laboratories. Due to my attendence at these kinds of meetings, I've learned about all sorts of awesome opportunties for my friends who are engineers. One program is the NAE Frontiers of Engineering. Innovative young (30-45) engineers are nominated and then selected to attend this symposium so that they can meet other stellar people in the field, get to know each other, and then later become NAE members themselves. It's pretty cool and a extermely valuable networking opportunity.

Debate?

On Thursday, for the presidential debate, I wanted to find a bar or debate watching party with people whose views were similar to mine. I figured, I'll call the NJ Congressional Offices, and see if there's some New Jersey viewing party going on! I gave a ring to Rush Holt's office and Jon Corzine's office. The staff members who answered said that there wasn't anything going on that they didn't know of any bars to go to. Sarah suggested that maybe since there were so many New Jersey people here, that they don't really have as much of a sense of "school spirit." So, I decided see if Illinois had any plans, calling Dick Durbin's office. On Durbin's website, he mentions a monthly Illinois Coffee hour! So, I thought, "Great! Illinois spirit!" I speak to someone, asking if the Illinois delegation had any bars they were going to watch the "game" or just recommendations in general. After the staff member consulted with someone else, they informed me that "that information is priviledged." They are "unable to give me that information because it deals with the campaign." I respond... "But, I just want to know about some bars in the area. I've just moved here and don't even know know what's around." (That's pitiful sounding, I know.) But, they still refused to divulge any information. So, I decided, maybe watching the debates just wasn't in the cards for me.

After work, I stopped by the NSF's Sensors: Buildings, Battlefields, and Beyond seminar/exhibit downstairs. While there, I got a call from my roommate Tina to go out w/ her fellow Republican staffers from New Mexico to the Red River Grill. Afterwards, we went to the Capitol Lounge to hang out with one of her brother's friends who was there for someone else's birthday. They were playing the debate there, but unfortunately, I got stuck in the room decorated with Nixon posters and Elephant signs. After about 15 min. of watching the debate, I had to sit at a table outside because I couldn't take all the cheering everytime Bush opened his mouth. I even got yelled at by a woman when I tried to explain Kerry's "flip flop." She knew about all the other versions of the bill, she said. She works in the SENATE. (And I just had to chuckle to myself. After hanging out with a bunch of people who work in the Senate, it's clear that the majority of the people there are answering the phone and answering constituent mail and are NOT involved in guiding the policy created in the office.)