DC1

We left at 9:30 a.m. on May 14 to go to Washington D.C. and see, or not see, Mark graduate and become a liar, I mean lawyer. I listened to a book on the walkman I have. Walkmen were ancient devices that one played tapes or CD’s on before the advent of i-everything and the kitchen sink. We got down there at 1pm or so and had lunch at his place. Naturally, it was terrible, but I suffered through. Met some very nice people who are under the illusion that he’s a nice person, but more about that later.

After I got finished choking down the food he gave me, we went to the Capitol Hilton to check-in, but there was a problem: the room wasn’t ready. I’m sure Mark called and arranged the whole thing to inconvenience me. Our luggage trolley was stored somewhere until the room was ready. My father decided to sit in the lobby while my mom, Mark, and I went to see some of the sights. We walked down to the White House, which I could see somewhat, but I can see it better in movies. You can’t get close to it in person. We saw the Treasury building and the courthouse where Mark worked last year.

We got back, and after some more argument between my mom and the person at the front desk, the room was ready. It was on the 9th floor, and I will say one thing, the elevator beeped at each floor. We got to our room, and it really wasn’t impressive. There were two double beds and a couch bed, a flatpanel-widescreen TV, and a bathroom. The really annoying part was that the sink was in the bathroom and not outside it.

For dinner, we went to Luigi’s which is an Italian restaurant near Mark’s school. The website is www.famousluigis.com, and no, King Koopa is not a waiter there. We got a personal pizza for the table just to try and dinner. I got linguini with shrimp in a spicy marinara sauce, and it was very good. Everyone else liked what they got, but I didn’t think the pizza was anything to write home about. However, I’m used to being close to the pizza capital of the U.S.: Old Forge, PA.

We were going to go see the monuments lit up at night, but the weather didn’t cooperate. It rained off and on while we tramped back to our hotel. I must say I was a little miffed because everyone was telling Mark how special he was, but he couldn’t stop it from raining. Anyway, we got back to hotel, and then Mark ditched us to go to a party. My parents watched TV, and I listened to a book on my new tape player. The tape player is from the library for the blind like the bigger one I have, but this one is a sort of USB player. There’s only one cassette per book and it has a USB drive on the end of it. After 2 hours or so, I shut it off and went to bed. I was slightly annoyed because my parents had NCIS on, and I was sort of listening to it. They shut it off before the end, so I don’t know what happened in that episode.