Last week my husband had to go to Washington D.C. for a meeting – he’s important like that. As I mentioned, I have a friend who lives pretty close to DC (Awesomesauce!), so I hitched a ride with him so I could spend the day in our capitol with her.

But that’s only part of the reason I wanted to go.

Years ago, one of my old running buddies* told me about this “2-mile loop” in DC that goes by all the monuments. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to run this loop. I’ve been to DC a few times in the recent years, but I’ve never actually seen any of the famous landmarks. None of them!**

This was the perfect opportunity. In the morning, I had breakfast with my husband in the hotel lobby, then he went off to his meeting and I figured out how to maneuver the Metro to get over to the main part of the city. I didn’t really have any problems, but I got off earlier than planned because I saw “White House” on a sign outside the window at one of the stops. I’m such a kid, sometimes.

I got off the Metro and followed the sign up the steps. When I got off, there it was: The White House. I truly didn’t think I would be as excited about it as I was. I’ve seen it hundreds of times on TV and in photos, but that just doesn’t capture how amazing it is in person. I would love to tour the inside some day.

I didn’t really know what this ‘loop’ was exactly, but I looked it up on the interwebs and talked to some others about it. It sounded like it was a pretty well-known, easy to find/do thing, and it went from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial and back. So, I asked one of the guards standing on the street in front of the WH how to get to the Capitol Building. They pointed me in the right direction and I was on my way!

The next thing I saw was not the Capitol Building though. I turned a corner, and there in front of me was the Washington Monument! Holy cow is that thing big! I stopped running for a few minutes to take a picture.

Then I was off again! Next up was the World War II Memorial, which was cool, but not as awe-inspiring as the other two – probably because it’s not as famous.

Kept running in the same direction, because I could see something big and white in front of me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew it was something! When I got closer, I discovered it was the Lincoln Memorial!

And in it…

And then I turned around…

I was looking for the Reflecting Pool ever since I ran by the Washington Monument. I expected it to be really close! It was very neat, but not as nice as Forrest Gump made it out to be…

I set off running again, not knowing where I was going. This so-called “loop” was not very clear. It might look clear on a map, but not when you’re running it. There were paths and turns all over the place! I asked for directions to the Capitol Building again.

Shortly thereafter, I ran by a man sitting on a bench taking a picture of himself and apparently having issues getting it just right. I offered to take the photo for him. He thanked me – in an Australian accent! – and I took a picture of him with the Jefferson Memorial in the background. I like to think that I gave him a positive impression of all Americans :)

Jefferson has always been my favorite. The Declaration of Independence really gets my juices flowing :)

Once again, I asked directions to the Capitol Building, since this alleged “loop” supposedly went from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol Building, and I had really hoped to see the Capitol. But alas, I discovered that it would take too long for me to run there, take the Metro back to my hotel, then shower and change in time to meet Awesomesauce, so I had to abandon the Capitol and head back.

“Loop” my ass.

Regardless, this was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t say it was a great training workout (even though I sweat my butt off) because I stopped so frequently to take pictures, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. With a slightly more planned out route so I could finally see the Capitol.

*I miss you, M-Cat!
**Not true. One year, my husband and I got lost looking for our hotel the night before a Kung Fu tournament and wound up in the parking lot of the Capitol Building. But it was dark. And it was just the parking lot. It doesn’t count.

My husband and I spent most of the weekend in Buffalo visiting my family. As always, I had a great time, but this post isn’t about the fun I had; it’s about what I did.

On the food-front, I was ridiculously terrible. I’m not exaggerating that, either: Every thing that I could have eaten, I ate. Every time I could have gone back for seconds, I did. I just ate, and ate, and ate: Pizza, banana bread, M&Ms (really?!), carrot cake, chocolate cream pie, ice cream cake (we celebrated three birthdays, and I ate some of each person’s cake…), macaroni salad, chex mix, and the list goes on. It’s not like I had a moderate amount of any of these things either – I went to town!

Obviously, this is bad. I always have a rough time of it food-wise when I visit my family, but usually I am better able to control myself. For some reason, this weekend I didn’t even try very hard to prevent the food coma – or feel very badly about it either… At least, not at the time.

There is some good news to report (thankfully) as well: I got a ton of physical activity in this weekend: I did Kung Fu, went for a run, and played frisbee golf, catch with the softball and hours of backyard volleyball. I’m sure I burned some serious calories after all that, but I’m unconvinced that it was enough to counteract all the calories I took in.

I’m heading back to Pittsburgh in the morning, which is good because it means returning to the predictability of my own home and food that is easy for me to control. I really love visiting my family, but let me tell you: It is so difficult for me to eat well when I’m up here that it’s a good thing I only visit for a few days at a time – and generally only every few months – or it could be a much more serious issue!

The next 30 days are going to be pretty irritating.

Yesterday I picked up my “30-day event monitor” from the hospital. The device itself is like an old school, clunky pager that I wear clipped to my waistband. There are two wires connecting the pager-part to electrodes that I attach to my body with strong sticky things (made by 3M, funnily enough).

The monitor is patient-activated, so any time I feel dizzy I have to push a button and stand still for 30 seconds or so while it records whatever my heart is doing. When it’s not recording, it’s not doing anything – except being a nuisance. Every 2-3 “events”, I have to call the hospital and “download” them through the phone, not unlike a fax machine. Oddly, it takes about a minute to download a 30-second event.

I’m supposed to wear it all the time, except when I’m showering. I think I’m going to refuse to wear it to bed (I didn’t wear it last night):  I’ve never gotten dizzy in bed, so I don’t see why I should make myself uncomfortable for nothing.

I wore it yesterday when I worked out and at kung fu, and it wasn’t too much of a hassle, except that all my sweat made one of the sticky things de-stick, which was obnoxious. Now I know I have to carry extras with me!

This thing is going to take some getting used to, in general. If I don’t hit the button immediately upon feeling dizzy, it’ll miss the entire “event” and won’t be of much help. Also, going to the bathroom is a pain in the butt since it’s clipped to my waistband, and now that I’m drinking water like mad, I’m using the bathroom more than I’d like to admit.

Thirty days of this. I hope they figure out what’s wrong with me after all this trouble! I joked yesterday about being a robot… now I’m a cyborg.