Week 3

It is said that a picture's worth a thousand words.... so here is a 7,000+ word blog.

This weekend my high-spirited roommates and I set out to attend a "ball." One of my roommates had received an invitation through The Washington Center, and, delighted at the opportunity to play dress up, all the members of my apartment RSVPed. We prepped for the evening by trying on potential ensembles and grooming excessively. And although my attempts to curl my hair were later foiled by a list mist, I think, as a whole, our group looked quite captivating as we departed for the ball in our little black dresses. To our dismay, we arrived at the affair only to discover that no one else had taken the dress code nearly as seriously. As in, everyone else was wearing jeans. After a brief tour of the small gathering, we helped ourselves to the buffet of snacks and sashayed our over-dressed selves out the door and back home. Although the party turned out to be a bust, we had a good time looking fancy and riding the metro.


Saddling up the feline outside the National Geographic Building. I highly recommend accumulating some crazy people to accompany you on your escapades in Washington. They will increase your entertainment exponentially.






The next day, two of my roommates and I got up early (noon) to go participate in an act of civil disobedience--a march from the White House to the Capitol protesting the Iraq war. I was looking forward to an afternoon of Molotov cocktails and pepper spray, but alas, the march was largely peaceful. A Republican lobbyist in my office inquire as to my plans for the weekend, and when I mentioned the march he communicated to me his opinion that the march would be a worthless waste of my time. However, I beg to differ. The march was very stimulating. I have no idea whether those types of events have any impact upon the government's actions, but it's nice to feel like you're trying at least.

(Above) A free sign that the roommates and I got at the rally. We are charity case protesters.
(Below) Pictures from the march that I felt like sharing.

To round out my very liberal weekend, I attended the cinematic event "No End in Sight" on Sunday. It was depressing, because it's not just a movie. As I mentioned in the previous blog, I attended my roommate's class "Peaceful Solutions" last week. I read a book by her Professor that I really enjoyed, which was a main motivation for my attendance. The book was the Professor's journal from one school year, and he discussed a lot of the peace topics he was covering in class. The book was published in 2002, but when I sat in on the class last week, I discovered that the curriculum has changed very little since then. It is interesting and sad to me that there are so many developments in wars and aggression, but the syllabus for peace has not evolved much. There is a lot more material for violence.