oh say can you see?

this is the story of my visit to our fare nation's capitol. a story about when tourists stop acting nice and start acting real...
i should preface that my trip got of to a bumpy start, literally and figuratively. Apparently, AirTran at SeaTac International Airport is run by a bunch of slack-jawed in breeders. here is the set up they had going: stand in line for one of two kiosks. get your boarding pass. then stand in another line to check your baggage. don't most airlines streamline this process? oh, and they only had one person checking luggage! i cannot tell you how many people stood in the bag check line for this one woman to tell them they were in the wrong line and had to go stand in the other then stand in the current one all over again. half of the 6am flight were still trying to check in when the plane was schedule to take off, eh. i took me almost 2 hours to get TO the security line. if i can help it, i may never fly AirTran again. The thing that made it more exacerbating was having wendy and carnie wilson in aerobics gear in line ahead of me making fun of the way everyone who walked by FOR DRESSING FUNNY!!! for being such lame-o's, i called them the fitness and the fatness in my head. it helped me chuckle while being trapped with an earful of their fashion commentary.
once off the ground, i was out like a light. that is the nice thing about airplanes. i hate being on them, but can't stay awake long enough to care. However, there was some righteous turbulence on my connecting flight. these days i'm not a church goer, but there is something very special about in-flight bumps that bring out the hail mary's in me. i don't even know where the rosary came from.











Upon landing, i was greeted by my shaggy-haired lover. i must admit, i could not hold back the water works. i have missed him terribly for over a month now. So when I finally got to lay eyes on him again, i was a bit taken by my emotions.
While I was there, we went to Pennsylvania to visit his folks. We went to the Bloomsburg Fair. Apparently the only fair is the Bloomsburg Fair. I have to admit to not being as enchanted as I would have been if I were 10 or 15 years younger. As as side note, i'm sick and tired of this elephant ear regime. So, it was nice to partake in fry bread. McDreamy's family is very nice. Not to sound trite, but they truly are "down-to-earth" folks. As well his niece, nephew, younger sister and foster siblings are very sweet, cute and fun. i really felt welcomed while i was there. which was a relief. families have the ability to be burdensome when they find you disagreeable.

the final day of my stay was spent walking 500 miles and then walking 500 more. We went to the zoo and looked at many cute animals
After walking the extent our appetites would allow, we had a delicious dinner and even more delicious sangria. it was heavenly. we also got very sore feet. i was dense enough to where flip flops for the first part of our day about town.
after dinner and a shoe upgrade, we made our way to the monuments.
they were monumental, to say the very least. it was a lot of fun and at the end of the night, i had blisters on top of blisters to prove it.

the next day we bid adieu. again, i was taken by emotion. only this time, i could not get myself to recover. i wasn't sobbing or anything, but my eyes just would not stop producing tears. it was mildly embarrassing, but a nice man checking my boarding pass noticed i was upset. he asked me if i was leaving. i said yes. he said not to worry, because i would be back. it was strangely comforting. i like random acts of compassion. anyway, i had a lot of fun, but the trip was too short.

to close i want to say that we packed a lot into our short visit. i got to feel like a tourista and a local. however, of all the activities, this was my favorite and the thing i tend to miss most...

el fin