i miss the people. i miss the pinecones.

i cannot believe it's already thursday. we fly back to spokane on sunday night, and i can't wait. i honestly never thought i'd ever miss whitworth as much as i do right now. last year, i would have given anything to get away, at least for a while, a weekend, anything. this year is so completely different. i still don't know if i can ever consider spokane 'home,' but whitworth is my temporary home, and i miss it. i miss the people. i miss the pinecones. i miss reading and studying in the coffee shop. i miss saying hello to people on the hello walk.

i have had such a good time on this trip and i've learned so much. i've met a bunch of new people and seen so many new places. i feel like i haven't experience DC at all since i've been here, mostly because we haven't gotten out much. we got caught up with all the inauguration stuff, and then the last two days we've had meetings all day. i'll basically only have saturday to sight see, and i know i won't be able to see nearly everything i want to see. i've basically come to the conclusion that i'll come back here some day (i don't know how soon) so i should just enjoy myself and not stress about trying to cram it all in.

this trip has been go, go, go non-stop. i'm ready for a break. i go back to school on sunday and then i get to go home for jan term break on tuesday. i'll be home for almost a week, which will be much needed. i can't wait to have some home-cooked meals. i've already told my mother that i don't want to go out to eat at all while i'm home. i've had to eat every single meal out for the last two and a half weeks and i'm so sick of it. though, i'm pretty sure i've lost some weight with all of the walking we're doing. i'm a horrible gauge of miles and such, but let's just say it's more than i've ever walked in my entire life in this short time span. it's good though, because these winter months are the hardest for me to get up the energy to work out. when it's this cold outside, i never want to put work out clothes on and walk to the gym in the snow and freezing temperatures. i'm glad to have gotten off campus for jan term because of that, but i almost miss the really relaxing time that it allows on campus.

i'm a little worried for spring semester. my schedule is sort of up in the air right now. my marketing class (that i built my entire schedule around) got moved to a night class. fantastic. so now i've been trying to rearrange things in my schedule, but now it's going to be really unbalanced. i have four classes on monday, plus yoga, so five hours of class. then hopefully i'll have marketing on tuesday/thursday mornings, but that'll be it. it's kind of stressing me out to not have my schedule set in stone going into the semester. i'm not taking a night class, but if i don't get into the other marketing class, i don't know what i'll do. i have to take it this semester.

i'm trying not to think about it. i'm trying to think about how i get to go back to whitworth on sunday and see my friends. and then how i get to go home on tuesday and relax for a week and eat amazing home cooked food. mmm.

The 4 AM wakeup call didn’t rustle my feathers.

During my senior year of high school in 2006, my US Citizenship teacher, Mr. Belcher, showed the class a taping of an Oprah show. On this particular show, she spoke to Barack Obama, who was currently the senator of Illinois. At this time, he had no intention of running for president. I turned to my classmate and said, “I hope he runs, because I would totally vote for him.” On November 4th, 2008, I did just that. Today, I witnessed his inauguration as the President of the United States of America.

Today was a whirlwind. January 20th, 2009 is a day that will go down in the history books for generations to come. The first African American president was inaugurated into office in the United States, and I was there to witness history in the making. The 4 AM wakeup call didn’t rustle my feathers. The anticipation of the event was enough to keep me from a deep sleep.

The most recent estimation I’ve seen is roughly 2 million people in attendance. When you hear the number, it seems like a lot, but it is a completely different situation when you are there in the middle of it all. In fact, it was quite amazing to see. This inauguration brought the country together in a way that I have never seen. As five other students and I walked through the crowd, we heard the stories of people from all over the nation. Many spoke about how Obama represents hope, change and forward movement. There were no racial barriers in the crowd, just 2 million united Americans, cheering for a man that can hopefully change this country for the better.
I feel blessed to have been able to attend Barack Obama’s inauguration this morning. I think the whole country is ready for a new leader, one equipped with plans to help pull the United States to its feet once again. With tiny American flags waving violently in the wind, 2 million people shouted “O-ba-ma” at the top of their lungs to ring in the new president – a new era in American history.

New York to DC.

i left new york city yesterday. it was a whirlwind, to say the least. i was there for about nine days. my group stayed at a hostel in Manhattan called Hostelling International. the first floor/lobby was really nice and hip. there was a nice room with couches and a wii and a little cafe that sold breakfast and lunch foods. they also had coffee, but i was never brave enough to try it. i'm such a snob...that's what seattle will do to you. unfortunately, the next few floors were a different story. we were on the third floor and we all gasped as we walked into our room. there were 8 beds, 4 sets of bunkbeds. there were also 8 small lockers along the wall and a chair crammed in the corner. there was probably three feet of walking space in the middle of the room. it was so small that we didn't even have a place for all the suitcases. some girls had their suitcases at the end of their beds and others had them on top of the lockers. luckily we had one extra bed which we used for storage of luggage. even worse than the cramped room was the bathroom. there was mold on the sinks and in the showers, tiles were coming loose in the showers and they were clogged so when you showered, they overflowed and stuff was floating in the water. not to mention there was a sign hanging up that read "please notify us if the bathroom needs cleaning," meaning it was not regularly cleaned.

after all of that, on our first night in the hostel, we heard a mouse in someones bag at three in the morning. it had chewed a hole in a plastic bag and we all heard it. no one knew what to do, so we basically freaked out for a while until we called the front desk and they finally sent someone up with mouse traps. the next day, we got what we like to call "the mouserator." it sends out high frequency sounds to keep the mice and rats away. it has worked quite well and kept the mice at bay.

new york city is so large, that i feel like i barely saw anything, but i saw so much! we walked through central park to get to the metropolitan museum of art, which was so cool. there was so much to see there, but i only saw a little over half of it. i can't even list everything we saw, because i don't remember it all. i really enjoyed my time there though, for the most part. i definitely think i could live there, at least for a year or two, but not for much longer than that. it was so high energy, that it was almost draining, but it was still a lot of fun.

yesterday, we took the train from new york down to DC. we passed the train that Obama was on - from philly to DC. there were secret service guys standing at all the entrances to the train and there was a huge crowd just waiting to see the train he was on. it was really crazy. once we got here, we came straight to the hostel. luckily, it is much cleaner than the one in new york was, and the room is a lot bigger so we have more space. there are sirens going off constantly because of all the politicians and the like that need police escorts. there are cops everywhere! i went to a souvenir shop today and they have the most random stuff, like obama nail clippers, obama coloring book, pens, pencils, bells, spoons, mugs, posters, shirts, sweatshirts, banners, ribbons, and all sorts of other stuff. the only accurate way to describe it is 'obama madness.' the energy here is insane, but i love it! i am so excited that i get to be a part of this historic inauguration. i've been all for Obama since before he even announced his candidacy for president. i can't believe this date has actually come!

i've made lists and crossed everything off.

the time is currently 11:52 PM on january 7th, 2009. i leave for new york city tomorrow morning...early morning...4:15AM to be exact. i have had horrible insomnia for the last three days, and i'm not sure why. is the anticipation too much? am i stressed? who knows. right now i'm debating whether to try to go to sleep and get three and a half hours, or to just stay up all night and try and sleep on the plane. well, either way i'll be sleeping on the plane. three and a half hours is in the middle of the sleep cycle, so could very well make me more tired than not sleeping at all. it doesn't help that i'm not tired at all right now. i finished packing an hour or two ago. i always get the feeling that i'm forgetting something, but i have no idea what it might be. i've made lists and crossed everything off, so i can't imagine i've forgotten something that my life depends on. the feeling is much more intense when it's a long trip like this. it's not like going home for a weekend, where most things i'd forget are easily accessible. i'm going to freaking new york and dc! it still hasn't sunk in completely, and i don't think it will until the plane lands. i feel so blessed to be able to go on a trip like this. even though it's more focused on print media and journalism, that's okay. the marketing and advertising field penetrates every kind of media, and who knows? i may discover something i'd be interested in doing that i haven't thought of yet or realized.

i know that tomorrow i will regret not getting more sleep. it is nearly impossible for me to go to bed before midnight any more, not matter how little sleep i got the night before. maybe the lack of sleep will help me adjust to NY time...i'll be really tired and will hopefully be able to fall asleep at a normal hour, even though it's three hours ahead. i haven't had to deal with a time change in a long time. the farthest i've gone in probably five years is utah, which i'm not sure even has a time change...?

i should really try to sleep, or at least get into my bed and rest. haha. as if. wow, i haven't used that phrase in a very long time. yikes.

i won't feel bad when i don't do whatever i set out to do.

i don't make new year's resolutions. we all say the same things ("lose weight," "be a better person"...etc.) but we never keep them. i will admit that i, too, am an offender of this crime. i've decided that i'm just not going to make resolutions any more. that way, i won't feel bad when i don't do whatever i set out to do, simply because another day arrived, and it happened to be the start of the next year. i'm over it.

my fingers hurt from too much guitar playing. it's a good hurt, though. one of the pains that results from something beneficial, so it's actually a good pain, you know? it's a pain that means i'm getting better. every time i practice, i get better. i really like the guitar. i think it's because i can just pick it up and play. when i played band instruments, i felt like it was always a huge production to practice for a half hour. when i played the oboe, i had to put it together, set up my music stand, get out all my music, and soak my reed in water for five to ten minutes before i could actually start playing. it was too much effort.

spokane has gotten six feet of snow this winter already, from december to now. i just got back to school last night at midnight. my flight was scheduled to leave seatac at 9:00 and land in spokane at 9:58. i boarded the plane at 8:30, as did all the passengers. it was snowing all around seattle, so i was afraid my flight would be delayed, but when i arrived at the airport and boarded the plane, every sign said it was on time. once we all got situated on the plane, we proceeded to wait, confused about why we hadn't left yet. they told us to turn off all of our electronic devices, so we could take off. after a half hour without any explanation as to why we hadn't pushed off yet, i turned my cell phone on to inform my ride that we'd be late. then, they told us to turn off our phones and such because we'd be pushing off "any moment now." another half hour ticks by. i got my phone out yet again to text my friend. eventually they started de-icing the plane, which of course took twenty minutes. we didn't end up taking off until 10:30. we sat on the plane for two hours without any explanation from the crew. it was really frustrating that we all had no idea what was happening. then of course, the sky was dumping mounds of snow onto wonderful spokompton. i got back to campus at midnight (i had class at 9am), and had to trudge through the snow-covered parking lot and sidewalks to my room. it was a disaster. luckily, i'm finally settled back in. there's so much snow, though, and i hate it. i will admit that it's really beautiful and there's something calming about walking around campus with the snow lightly falling around you. i just hate that it makes me a prisoner.

i'm leaving for new york in three days. it's finally starting to sink in, a little bit. i don't think it'll fully sink in until i'm actually there. i cannot wait.