The Birth of Pain and Panic

And now onto Phase 2. A very delayed Phase 2...

It really started with Carly’s email first thing Sunday morning from our dear friends at Virgin America telling her that her flight Monday night was cancelled. Let’s get a tally going, this is flight numero uno. So staying calm, cool, and collected, Carly spent the next three hours on hold with Virgin where she jumped on a flight with Sarah and me scheduled to leave on Tuesday afternoon. Well, Carly snagged an extra day! And at this point, we thought they're just being extra cautious. But when Sarah and I went to the local supermarket/7-11 to stock up on waters and snacks, the patron told us we should get out ASAP. We both looked at him, said thanks for nothing, sir, and went back to our home away from home.   

 

So, with that in the back of our minds, we then moseyed back to the Eastern Market where we stocked up on all of the cool treasures we passed on the day before. I picked up some art, Carly and Sarah got some jewlery, and we snacked on apple slices. We were pretty much the last people there, since people were starting to retreat for the storm, but this didn't phase us. We stopped at a french restaurant for lunch and when we saw that they were still advertising that they were open on Thanksgiving - we joked that we would have some place to go if we were still stuck. Hahaha, we were so funny. So we then walked over to the Newseum where we were instantly overwhelmed and out of the seven stories (no pun intended) we only got to half of the first before it closed. But no worries, our tickets were good both that day and the next. When I asked the lady at the desk if they were going to be opened the next day (the supposed "worst day" of the storm), she told me, "Unless the government is shut down, we're open" Hahahahahaha I thought, these people have senses of humor.

 

Seeing as it was past 5:00, we looked for a historic bar where we could get a drink and found the Intercontinental Hotel. Well, this had history wrapped all up in it. This bar, the Round Robin, was in the hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "I have a Dream" where President Taft would sit in the lobby and politicians would come up to him, trying to get him to support their bills, and as a result, the term lobbying came into existance. Michael met up with us at this point and was able to soak up all the history. 

We then went to dinner at the Old Ebitts Grille where we feasted on porkchops, lobster and jumalaya. As we were laughing and pouring glass number two or three, almost as if we were in a movie, our waiter told us that they were closing the metro tomorrow, and then we were slapped back to reality. Not too long after we heard that the government was shut down for the next day. That meant all the museums were closed. Michael was jumping around like a little kid cause his classes were cancelled. We on the other hand were not as gleeful.

 

Thus began the longest day...

 

When we woke up that morning, all three of us received an email saying that our flight was cancelled. So we called our friends over at Virgin and got on a flight for later Tuesday night that would take us to SFO, and Sarah would get on a flight Wednesday morning to LA. Ok fine, we can live with that. That took up most of our morning so we hopped on over next door to FoBoGro and picked up more supplies (Champagne, wine, and sandwiches) and then played cards, watched West Wing, found we had a cancelled flight (again), and stared at each other. This was around the time when Carly nicknamed Sarah and I, Pain and Panic and herself Hades. We had two meals down at the hotel restaurant but at least we got a change of scene. When we were downstairs talking to the hotel to extend our stay, we asked them striaght out - is everyone just overreacting? The bell hop (knowing we were suckers) said, "Oh no. This is for real. I mean look outside, the wind is literally pushing the car backwards up the street!" Carly and I whipped around, shrieked in horror and thought ok, maybe the Mayans were right. Turns out that the car was just reversing. Did i mention it was a very long day?

 

We spent the entire day waiting in anticipation for the "worst" of the storm to hit. But they pushed it back to Monday night. Apparently all three of us slept throught it. So in true us fashion, we called our "friends" over at Virgin and got on flights Thursday night (for Sarah) and Friday morning (for me and Carly). Desperate for fresh air, we tracked down the only open movie theater in town (over in China Town) and called Michael so we could meet up. We went to lunch around the corner, and the temp had officially dropped 30 degrees and our little California bodies couldn't handle it. So, on the way we stopped at Macy's (for warmth as well as shopping) and then met up with Michael and his friend for Argo.

 

Quick side note on this movie - AWESOME. Even though I had read an article about it in Entertainment Weekly, I was completely enthralled and didn't look at my watch at all for the entire two hours (a total victory in my book). And i was on the edge of my seat the entire time. HIghly recommend it.

 

Ok back to DC...we then went to dinner and had some delicious pizza and were happy to be amongst the living. Michael thought it was so funny that we now would be in DC the same time as his mother (set to arrive Thursday night). We didn't find it funny at all.