ESE on the Road 1

Only in America do you have to travel hundreds of miles out of your way to get where you're going.

You want to get to Washington D.C.  That means you fly to Atlanta.  That's where you wait two hours and then get the plane that actually takes you where you need to go.

Which is well to the north of where you first went.

Somewhere in America, somebody thinks this is a good idea.

Somebody who no doubt makes a lot of money.

Like I don't already have a head full of bad wiring, all buzzing, popping, and overall distracting with other thoughts.  "Sometimes you're alone and all you do is think."

That's fine.  When I get a window seat, I can't seem to help but stare, anyway.  Fascination combined with a slight hint of fear.

Trapped in this metal tube at over 10,000 feet with about 30 foreign college kids.  

"You're free to move about the cabin but while in your seat, please keep your seat belt on in case we run into unexpected bumpy air."

Bumpy fucking air?

Turbulence.  Like my thoughts.

It's a glamorous job, higher ed.  A truly charmed life.  I know you're jealous.

Trying to figure out whose secret headquarters this is:

Can't see from the pictures, but there are all manner of bulbous, golf ball-shaped radar domes and satellite dishes that point straight up.  

The DC Metro.  Misleading signs, that is if you can even see them.  Announcements from conductors whose sentences you can parse entirely...until they say the name of the next station.  Somehow that key bit of information gets garbled each time.  Stay classy, Metro.

I forgot how humid it is here.  Everything just...sticks.  Peel it off if you can, but it will stick again and then once more anon.

I can't remember where I saw it.

It was on one of my previous visits to DC.  I saw a quote that I'm still trying to find the source for...not to mention the accurate wording.  It was carved on the marble rim of a fountain.

Yeah, like that fucking narrows it down in this city.

It went something like this: "We're all looking for something...and we come to find it in Washington D.C."

I did it once before.  Hope I can do it again.

Going to sleep.  Alone with my beer.

Damn this noise inside my head.