Sleep tight...

The bedbugs have been biting.

Yes, our motel is almost hilariously bad. There are baby cockroaches that try to shower with me in the morning. The guy that drives the shuttle between the motel and the metro station is mean and grumpy, especially to old people. The cleaning people steal our shampoo and soap if we open it and use it even once...then replace it with fistfuls of facial soap. Yes, and people are getting bitten by something at night.

So I was looking under my mattress for bedbugs. Didn't spot any of those...but there, under my bed, were thoughtfully placed porn magazines. Not only that, but a used!trojan! AUGH! What the fizzle is the maid service for if not getting that filth the heck out of my room before I get there?

I figure that this whole thing will be hilarious...later...

For now, it's really unsettling. Oh well.

Whoa, it's like...the Capitol and stuff

Yes, I'm in Washington, D.C. What am I doing here? Working and stuff, clearly!

The WJI course has been really interesting so far, and it's been a huge time investment. They've been sending us out into the city in search of news stories this week, so I've been around, but I haven't had much time for seeing the sights yet. I spent some time at the National Mall on Monday, during which time I spent a mere 6 minutes in a cool sculpture museum, and only 10 minutes at the Air & Space museum.

Last weekend I did manage to go visit the Shives, who live north of Baltimore a bit. I took the Metro (DC's city train-subway thing) up and met Justin in Green Belt, and we drove up. The area they live in is amazing, I must say. It's beautiful. If you said I couldn't live someplace in Michigan (or living in Detroit was the only choice) then I think I'd gravitate that way. It's the first place beyond home I really thought was okay. Plus, the Shives are a great family, but you knew that.

Hmm. I don't think I want to work for a newspaper, unfortunately, now that they've told me all about how that goes, but on the other hand the material is fascinating, the work challenging, and the people in the course are great. I do have a roommate after all, but he's cool. So it's all good!

I feel pretty

I finally took the dive and got contacts. They're pretty different, I guess, but I think they're pretty cool, and I think I'll stick with them.

In the interest of getting all the reading and writing done for the upcoming journalism course, I'm up at my cottage now, with nobody to play with and distract me, and so far it's working out pretty well. It's a lot of work to get done yet...but I can make it, I think.

An added bonus of the course I found out recently: I seem to be the only guy attending. Hee.