New Shoes and Metro Fiasco

I was really excited about today, because it was going to be my first hearing experience on Capitol Hill, but it didn't happen exactly has planned.

A girl from the office and I agreed to meet in the building rather than going into work first. I was planning on being there a bit early so that I could save us seats. 

I was going along my normal metro route when we suddenly stopped. 

The metro stops from time to time, but we were sitting for an unusually long amount of time. Finally the conductor came on the intercom and said that a customer had gotten sick at a stop and we were to stay there until it was clear. 

I had no service and was stuck underground when I was supposed to be sitting among politicians discussing important world changing issues. I decided to get off and walk from the stop where we were. I knew it wasn't far to the mall. 

I whipped out my iPhone and typed in the building where I was to meet my coworker. It said it was a mile away, which seemed odd, but I was in a hurry so I quickly followed the directions.

As I started looking around I realized that there was a much shorter path I could have taken. When I referred back to my iPhone I realized that I was looking at driving directions, not walking directions.

I dashed past the Washington Monument, cut through the botanical gardens (which are beautiful), skipped past a bunch of Smithsonian museums and finally made it to the correct building, but not without wounds. As soon as I stopped I became very aware of the blisters on my feet and how hot and disgusting I felt from my jet black, heat conducting, suit jacket.

Once we found the correct room, there were no seats and they were not allowing people to stand. I didn't even get to go to the hearing after all.

I was really excited, because my district representative was going to be there and they were talking about issues I had been learning and studying about at USCIRF. 

We took a taxi back to the office and although I was really bummed, it was my first ever taxi ride. Being a taxi driver is something I could never do. I'm too scared to honk at people and I always let pedestrians cross instead of zooming past them and nearly running them over. 

We listened to the hearing through the web cast, which was super short and not very exciting like I hoped it would be.

So much for new shoes and a new jacket. Better luck next time.