Obligatory opening entry

After a few days in Charlotte with Helen and the Smith family, I made the seven hour drive to Washington, D.C last Thursday. I was making good time, but the Mapquest directions had me on the left side on the highway when the exit for my residence was clearly on the right. I'm not quite sure where I ended up, but found my way back to the interstate and 30 minutes later got to my destination.

My building. I'm on the second floor, far left.


View from the living room window (that's the Cannon House Office Building where congressional types work).


The kitchen and living room, which both need massive cleaning.



My room. I brought posters to make it a little homey (Sunn, Pixies, Sleater-Kinney, The Books, Dungen, Unheard Music Series). I share a bathroom with Anna, who works for Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota) and just got an ugly shiner while pitching at a Senate softball game. Erik (the guy who's subletting the room to me) tells me there's a cool guy named Bryan upstairs.





As I mentioned in a previous entry, I'm a couple blocks from the Library of Congress. A hop, skip, and a jump away from the Mall, which appears to host the Smithsonian Folklife Festival right now. I test-walked my route to NPR this afternoon (internship starts Monday): only 35 minutes. That means I can save money on metro tickets. The biggest problem I have right now is food. There aren't really any grocery stores to speak of and the small one near my building is a little pricey. I need to make friends with someone that's mobile (my car is in Virginia for the summer with some of Helen's "relatives") so I can stock up on the essentials. Right now I have bread, peanut butter, jelly, mac-n-cheese, milk, and apples.