Country roads, take me home

Allow me to explain the title of this post. Last time I mentioned the impending crazy busy week at work. That was thanks to the fact that we had four programs going on all in the same week, one in Louisiana, one in Michigan, and two here in D.C. After all was said in done, my fellow intern Aislan and I had collated 137 binders, 35 teacher folders, 25 of the all important speaker information packets (basically their life line while they travel to and from the program, including airline tickets, hotel confirmation numbers, program schedules, etc., etc.), acquired approximately 6 paper cuts, and logged probably 30 miles walking around downtown D.C. in 95 degree weather. IT WAS SO FUN!!! Bet you weren't expecting that, but it actually really was. Allow me to explain.

Last week we had a group of 35 teachers visiting from Dunbar, West Virginia. Now I have never been to West Virginia save for a brief church ski trip back in middle school where all we did was skid down slopes of pure ice for three days, get hyped on hot cocoa and annoy our supervisors. But after spending two days with our group of born and bred West Virginians I feel like I got a pretty good taste of the state. They were hilarious, I don't really know how else to describe it. I was put in charge of making the nametags for this group, and actually meeting Corky Skidmore and Suzie Shirky (there are more epic names, those are just my favorite) in person was quite an experience. So not only did Aislan and I get to print off all the copies for this teacher workshop, compile all their important informational folders, make their nametags, etc. (all the behind the scenes work you might call it), we also got to staff the event. So bright and early on Wednesday morning, I met the group at the Holiday Inn Capitol over near L'Enfant Plaza to escort them back to our office for the first leg of their workshop. At 8:15 in the morning I was greeted by a slew of fanny packs, crocs, and the terribly tacky tie-dyed D.C. t-shirts the roadside stands sell to poor, innocent tourists. Oh yes, and I was also greeted by something absolutely glorious. SOUTHERN ACCENTS!! As we walked back to the Smithsonian I basked in the beautiful sound of southern drawls in my ears and thought about how much I have missed the word y'all.

Once we got back to our building, we started in on our busy schedule. This group was participating in a Teaching American History workshop with a focus on the Civil War, so their itinerary included a presentation from the Dean of Students at the Duke Ellington School of Performing Arts who introduced Civil War artifacts and gave a powerpoint on slave quilts and symbolism. Then we rounded the group back up to head to Ford's Theatre and the Petersen House. This is where it got really interetsing. Our group was great! They were friendly, talkative, and had a great sense of humor. But... they HATED (and I mean hated) walking. Now Ford's Theatre is about a 10 minute walk up 10th street, no big deal at all. However, approximately 3/4 of our group opted for taking the metro which, ironically, actually takes longer since you have to switch lines. Yet we willingly obliged and sent Aislan and Shannon off to guide the group while I led the meager little walking group. Our guided tour was set for 11 and we showed up around 11:15... the metro group arrived around 11:27. Apparently someone lost their metro card and had to buy a new one before they could be "released" as they called it. Then someone lost their Ford's Theatre ticket. We found an extra copy. Then half needed to use the bathroom. We guided them in that direction. Seriously, all my years of babysitting were put to use I feel like!! But wandering around the museum with these good old Southern folk :) was very enjoyable. They would just chat your ear off and it was fun to hear about their background and their families.

Day two of the program included the same early morning pick up at the Holiday Inn. And the same desire to metro it instead of walking (once again, 10 minutes max). This time our destination was the National Portrait Gallery where we got to enter before public hours and received private guided tours of the Civil War collections. Then we headed back to the Smithsonian for a performance by a group called Magpie that performs Civil War battle songs. That was quite the experience as well. Then it was time for our group to head home... which is where my title comes in. We're walking out of our office building (towards the metro station of course) and my newfound friend Corky Skidmore starts singing at the top of her lungs (much to the alarm of a group of serious looking suit-clad politicians) "Country Roads Take Me Home." It was all I could do to keep from bursting out laughing and it was the perfect end to the program.

Friday night was a whole other experience. I volunteered to help out at the Smithsonian Sleepover at the Natural History Museum. The Girl Scout themed one. So from 5:30 to 11:30 I ran the fossils craft table where I instructed the 3rd-5th grade girls to pour their bag of dirt out on their paper plate, add their cup of glue, and mix it up with their hands. Yup, if you're thinking that made a pretty big mess, you're thinking right. Then they were shown to the bathroom (probably the most important step in the craft making process) before they got to come back and decorate their mud patty creation with dried pasta to create a "fossil." I woke up the next morning sounding like a bullfrog thanks to how loudly I had been talking in my really excited "let's make a fossil!!" voice.

Then Saturday morning I drove up to Riesterstown, Maryland to visit a friend from Davidson. It was TOTALLY worth navigating my way through I-495 traffic for the stupendous, outstanding, amazing, delcious, delectable double crab cakes platter that we all had for dinner at Jen's favorite restaurant G&M. They actually ship their crab cakes around the country and I can completely see why! I ate more than her boyfriend and her dad, just throwing that out there. Then it was off to see Toy Story 3 before taking the metro in to the Baltimore Harbor on Sunday morning to scarf down delicious caramel and chocolate glazed monkey bread at Miss Shirley's Cafe.

Since getting back to D.C. I've been enjoying a much more laid back week at work. (I'm actually wearing a JEAN SKIRT right now!! Shhh...) Since my supervisors are all in Michigan this week for another program, Aislan and I have just been chipping away at the long to do lists they left for us. I've also been volunteering more and last night I helped out at the face painting table at the annual Picnic at the Zoo event. Yes, you read that correctly. I, artistically challenged Katie, worked the face painting station. The first little girl that came up asked for piggies. The final results were the saddest looking little creatures I've ever seen but for some reason she loved them and gave me a big hug. Maybe she wears glasses normally and had left them at home so she couldn't see properly when I showed her in the mirror. However, my flamingos and pandas were pretty good, not to brag or anything. But we have actually finished everything at work now though, so I am off to NORTH CAROLINA!!!!! Country roads, take me HOME!! :) Yes I am going back to my state where they have sweet tea and southern accents, and where my form of transportation can be a boat rather than a metro car. YAY! Don't get me wrong, I like it here a lot, but I miss my state.

Still learning the ropes

Being back to a normal existence minus doctors poking various types of needles into your arms and your morning alarm being the sound of heart monitors is so nice I've decided. Life has been good since my vacation at the GW hospital. I'm back to normal save for this gnarly bruise I have going on my right arm from all the blood work... it changes colors daily and causes people on the metro to stand a good distance away from me. It's nice, I don't have to worry about being pushed and shoved so much thanks to my green/blue/purple/reddish splotchy bruise in all its glory.

I spent the post emergency room weekend relaxing at my cousin's house in Arlington. I felt rather lazy and guilty as they spread 72 bags of mulch around their yard in 95 degree weather... while I remained horizontal on the couch sipping iced tea. But I didn't feel a single tinge of guilt when I got to help eat the homemade lasagna and chocolate chip pecan pie they cooked as their celebratory "we're DONE!!!" dinner. They delivered me back to my dorm on Sunday night and I immediately went out for a walk, seeing that the only physical activity I had taken part in for the past week was lifting a spoonful of ice cream from the bowl to my mouth or making an expedition downstairs to acquire more of cousin Rachael's magnificent superb delicious peanut butter bars. I think my body was thrown off from all the tests they did at the hospital or something, because all I wanted to eat for about five days straight was sugar and/or red meat... and for anyone who knows me even remotely well, you know that's pretty abnormal.

I returned to work on Monday morning. The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, everyone on the metro was smiling, the sky was blue!!! Well, not really... it was extremely overcast and quite chilly and everyone on the metro was extremely grumpy on a Monday morning per usual. But I didn't care. As I breezed past the oh so familiar hospital (which happens to be about 10 feet from the metro entrance... ), instead taking the escalator down to the metro, I couldn't help but smile.

I immediately hit the ground running back at work since we had four upcoming teacher workshops to finalize, one in Louisiana, one here in D.C., and two in Michigan. Thankfully I was able to pick right back up where I left off... but only after having to reassure pretty much everyone in my office that the bruise on my arm was nothing out of the ordinary and I was perfectly fine. (I opted to wear a long sleeved shirt the next day to solve that problem...)

Apart from a busy workweek, I also got a chance to actually get out and enjoy some of what D.C. has to offer. On Monday during work, I got a text from my roommate Kelly asking if I would be interested in attending an outdoor film festival in Crystal City with her and her friend from work, Jared. I of course accepted, and didn't even bother to ask what movie we would be seeing. Come 7:00, we all meet at the metro and I discover that I have signed myself up for an entire summer of Monday night Star Trek movies thanks to the Crystal City Summer 2010 Star Trek Movie Marathon. So basically, from here on out, each Monday night Jared, Kelly, and I will board the yellow line to Crystal City with a bag of candy and beach towels in tow to go lay on the grass and watch every single Star Trek movie ever made. Yup. I'm not joking. We're actually missing tonight's since both Jared and Kelly were busy for work. But never fear, tomorrow night we will reconvene at Jared's apartment to watch movie number two. Kelly and I will also be combining our cooking skills (she actually went to Johnston and Wales for a year with plans to become a pastry chef before she transferred to Georgia Tech) to craft a delectable (hopefully) meal and dessert to accompany the movie. So that should be an interesting evening.

Apart from Star Trek I also got a chance to do a little job hunting so I can finance this summer of mine in D.C. I had an interview on Thursday and got a job at Clyde's of Georgetown, a semi-upscale yet family friendly restaurant in Georgetown just about a fifteen minute walk from my dorm. I'll start that job in July after I complete training at the end of the month, so that'll be a great source of income to compensate for my tendency to spend way too much money on all the awesome ice cream and frozen yogurt shops they have in this city.

On Saturday my friend Jen came down from Baltimore to visit and stay the night. We went all touristy and wandered around the Eastern Market, saw an IMax movie at the Museum of Natural History, and then had sushi in Georgetown before seeing a movie. As much as I love exploring on my own, it was nice to have someone to wander around with and laugh at all the tourists taking pictures of squirrels and sporting American flag t-shirts and fanny packs. (And no I'm not joking about the squirrels, it really did happen).

So basically now that I am up and moving I am enjoying D.C. a whole lot more and have a pretty good routine going. I also finally bought myself a Smartrip card for the metro, so I've totally got it down pat. Now I sail on by the flustered tourists contemplating the metro fare card machines and tediously counting out their spare change (granted, I used to be exactly like them so I shouldn't talk too much). I've also mastered cooking in my little three foot wide kitchen with about 2 feet of countertop space. It's all about placement and utilizing all the available space... if you have to balance the cutting board on the edge of the sink and park a few ingredients on top of the coffee machine, no big deal. It's definitely not mom's home cooking, but it gets the job done.

That's all for now! I'm planning on heading to Baltimore to visit Jen if I survive this busy, busy, busy week at work, so I'll write more then I bet!

Question: Which is worse, a headache from ice cream brain freeze or a spinal tap??

If you're intrigued by the title of this blog, just keep reading. If you asked me to list off some of the things I thought I would have done by the end of my second week on my own in D.C... a trip to the George Washington University Emergency Room definitely would not have made it onto the list. But that is precisely where I was for the better part of this week. Allow me to explain, in retrospect it's actually quite a funny story.

So I spent the weekend with a high fever, chills, stiff, achy joints and muscles, and just generally feeling pretty crummy overall. I was spending the weekend dog sitting out in Mclean, Virginia and basically all I was doing with myself was lying on the couch resting and watching the French Open, so I didn't think too much of it and figured it would pass. However... I woke up on Tuesday morning and was greeted in the bathroom mirror by a face the color of a tomato and my entire body covered in a lovely red rash. So I figured there might be something a little bit more going on there. Nevertheless, it's my second week of work, so not wanting to be the dramatic girl who calls in sick I headed off to the office per usual. I felt alright I guess, other than the fact that I itched all over and couldn't stop shaking in the intense air conditioning we have in our office. (Seriously, it feels like the inside of an igloo down there! Cardigans just aren't cutting it... I might have to spring for bringing my NorthFace to work or something. And a thermos of hot cocoa and those hand warmers you use when you go snow skiing.)

Throughout the morning I received several concerned questions from my colleagues: "Katie, did you go out in the sun this weekend? You are SO RED!"Or "What on earth happened to your face?" Things along those lines. After lunch I gave in and called my dad to let him in on what was going on. He says I started off the conversation with something like, "Hey Daddy, I don't want to alarm you but I just had a question. What do you think I could do about this red rash all over my body?" In retrospect, I think I probably would have been quite concerned as a parent if my kid called me up with that inquiry as well. So I guess I should have let him in on it without nearly inducing a mild heart attack in the process. Anyways, after lunch I had a meeting with my supervisor, who has a daughter just about my age. After we had gone over our to do lists and discussed several of the up coming programs, I casually asked if she knew of an Urgent Care center in the area that I could visit after work since I wasn't feeling well. She immediately switched into mom mode and sent me straight to get medical attention. Which brings me to the start of my lovely stay at the GW hospital.

I managed to get my red, itchy, feverish self back on the metro (definitely received some stares during that ride seeing that I matched my red sweater at that point), home to my dorm to grab my medications and change into comfy clothes, and then I hoofed it back up to the hospital and checked myself into the ER around 3:30. Four and half hours and several crosswords later I was admitted to a room in the back. Honestly I figured I would be home by 10pm or so... I had no idea what to expect. Instead, the fun began almost immediately. A very concerned nice young doctor came in and told me they were all very alarmed by my bloodwork, seeing that my white blood count was at 1.79 (the normal range begins somewhere around 4.5). They told me that, given the symptoms I had listed off, they were worried that I might possibly have bacterial meningitis so they wanted to perform a spinal tap, a CAT scan, and a chest x-ray and then keep me overnight to monitor me. So all visions of going home and being back at work the next day disappeared at that point. The spinal tap was probably the weirdest medical procedure I've ever undergone. I wont' go too much into detail for those reading who might be a little squeamish, but basically they had me hunch over, they gave me a numbing shot in my back, and then they poked a needle into the ligament of my spinal cord and extracted some of my spinal fluid to to check it for bacteria. It was the strangest feeling ever when they would hit a nerve... they told me at the beginning to just say left or right as they were "walking the needle in". I asked how I would know, and they just said, "Oh, you'll know!" And I most CERTAINLY did! The first time they hit a nerve ending it was on my left side, so I felt this intense shooting pain/weird sensation down my entire left leg and I just was like, "LEFT LEFT LEFT!!" It was kind of like when you hit your funny bone or the doctor checks your reflexes but time 1,000,000 or so since they're actually in your spine probing your nerves. Eesh. Well, they finished that and then I just had to lay flat for three hours or so... at this point I'm getting pretty freaked out. Especially since all the nurses and doctors keep asking if I'm all by myself, and each time I just nod my head and think "I want my mommy!!!" (I know, I'm like 5 years old).

At this point, Patrick comes to the rescue via his older brother Stephen who lives in D.C. I am quite certain that a 26 year old guy has a number of better things to do on a Tuesday night than trek down to the hospital to visit his little brother's girlfriend. But regardless, that is just what he did. With a bag of grapes in town nonetheless. :) I was incredibly glad to see him and that made the time pass much, much faster and took my mind off the test results I was waiting. Thankfully around 2am, Dr. Collins came in to let me know the test results were negative and I had no signs of bacterial meningitis. Instead, he just held up my bottle of sulfa pills, which I had recently been prescribed for acne by my dermatologist, looked at me and said "Never, ever take this again in your life, and you will be just fine!" I was like, it's a PROMISE!

So then I was admitted upstairs and got to spend a super fun two days hanging out in the hospital. My white blood cell count continued to drop on Wednesday, so naturally mom and dad flipped out and drove like maniacs to get up here. But I have never been happier to see them and I actually could not have gotten through the rest of that without them. But by this morning my count was going back up, so I was allowed to go home! I was a little sad to say goodbye to all the amazing doctors and nurses (not too sad of course). :) But every single person I came into contact with while I was there was incredibly kind and I give that hospital a big thumbs up. However... I probably won't miss my roommate too much. She snored pretty badly and enjoyed staying up until 3 am watching Sex and the City re-runs with the volume turned up really loud.

So I left the hospital, got an extra large ice cream, and now I'm just laying in bed at my cousin Racheal's house in Arlington. So that's that. No more sulfa. Ever. Guess I learned that the hard way! But at least now my body has returned to it's normal hue, my fever is gone and I no longer need 10 blankets on top of me to keep warm and stop shaking. So things are definitely looking up. :) Week three better include only run of the mill, incredibly boring occurrences. Seriously, I want the most exciting/dangerous thing that happens to me to be getting off on the wrong metro stop or something.

But that's my week in a nutshell. Wish I could have written about something else, but I guess I can now say that I was treated at the hospital where the president goes!