Tuesday 24th June 2014
22.53
This morning we went to the gym again and then spent the afternoon pool-side. ShortButSweet worked on her The Lion King-for-kids-musical-happy-camp project (and we found this brilliant piece), and I faffed about pretending to do important things like updating my Instagram account. LittleBitFierce came over and we celebrated her having just accepted a sweet job – cocktails and Prosecco all round. We also compared various friends we know or have in common who are getting married or having babies and instead of considering the complexities of their life choices we spent a while critiquing their dress choices.
Real life beckons with its gnarled and unwelcome crooked finger.
Also, this happened:
Cruel palm of fate meets unimpressed face
Wednesday 25th June 2014
This morning after a run-through of The Lion King, ShortButSweet and I went to Manassas, a town in Northern Virginia famous for being home to two Civil War battles – the first of which was actually the first *battle* of the War, in July 1861. They had a light show with fibre-optic yahoo-hahs to indicate where all the troops moved and whatnot. And, like at Mount Vernon, they had a pretty high quality movie with a ton of battle scenes. I liked the story of Colonel Ricketts and his wife: he was wounded in the first Battle but Fannie Ricketts refused to believe he was dead so snuck her way into the Confederate camp, nursed him back to health and then kept him company when they stuck him in prison.
Then there was a tour of the battlefield and we learned about who lived nearby and what happened and how Virginia was all over the place during the war. I’m sure by this point I may know more about American History than most other countries – except, of course, my beloved sexy Tudors. And ShortButSweet and I have been having an ace time tooting about in her little yellow car all over the place. It’s adorable.
Thursday 26th June 2014
An early start today as I went in to work with ShortButSweet’s Pa to spend a whole day rambling and rolling in DC. As this sweetly 90s poster really told the truth:
Troof
As I arrived into DC’s business district crazy early (6:40AM, owch), I settled in Starbucks with all the suits and had a latte-and-wifi-stealing session to wake myself up. I tried to formulate a ‘plan’ in my head, which, true to form, involved me entirely underestimating how big distances are to walk. So at 7:30AM I set off merrily to the Library of Congress, not thinking it far – just head to the Needle, right?
The Washington Monument, guidin’ my way
An hour and a half later, I was there. Ha ha. Everything is a lot further than it looks. But it was a nice walk in the morning sunshine, with all the early-start runners people walking to work. The Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress is beautiful, in Italian Renaissance-style, with some exhibitions a little bit like the old book collections in the British Museum in London.
As I left, I asked the lady at the information desk whether I should walk or metro to my next stop – the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“No way honey, you don’t wanna walk. We’re on 1st Street, and that’s all the way on 14th Street!”
“Are you sure? I did walk all the way here…”
“Honey, it’s a long way. Do you want to be depressed before you even get there?”
True that. So I hopped on the Metro, and headed over there. I know it’s a kind of miserable thing to do on vacay, but it’s meant to be one of the best in the world. And by chance, when I arrived they were starting a talk by a Holocaust survivor, which was fascinating. He was a man in his eighties who was a Jew from Romania. His parents had a dairy farm, and in the early 40s they were forced to move into a ghetto. He told stories about how he had to trade on the black market and look after his family when his father was sent to a forced labour camp. They were able to move to Israel after the war, and then he went to the States and made a life for himself. It was very inspirational.
After that I went round the exhibition. It was very difficult – they did it in quite a matter-of-fact way, walking you chronologically from the anti-Semitism in the 1930s, right through to the aftermath for Jews following the liberation from concentration camps and moving to different countries. They had a huge collection of photographs, German propaganda, uniforms, pieces of walls and such from ghettos, videos, quotes and poems and everything. The bit that really took my breath away were the huge piles of shoes they had, from when they had arrived at the concentration camps. It was a very harrowing but fascinating morning.
I swung by the American History Museum to have a sandwich and see the Star-Spangled Banner again (“Raise it Up!”) – which was made by a woman in Baltimore, her two daughters, a niece… and her slave girl, who was airbrushed into an “indentured maidservant”… Then I set off (treckin’) back to the Capitol to do my tour.
The floor (the ‘crypt’ – although nobody is actually buried there) that holds up the massive Dome of the Capitol AND the huge hall itself
Wall of the old Senate Chamber
“Man, I will never fit inside this boat”
Liberty, beside the eagle (patriotism?) and the snake (wisdom)
They showed us a propaganda film beforehand all about how Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate, which I think is like our House of Commons and House of Lords) is supposed to unite all the dramatically different views in the US in one voice. From cowboys in Idaho to subway-riding fashion designers in NYC, if the video taught me anything, then if there is a dramatic musical crescendo the power of democracy will succeed.
Then they showed us around all the main rooms and we learned some history, and saw lots of sweet pictures and statues. My favourite was a sketchy one of the baptism of Pocahontas, which was meant to show ‘the beginnings of unity between settlers and Native Americans’… But it was all pretty magnificent and I got to absolutely geek out on politics and pretend I was in House of Cards.
After that I headed back to the Metro and got picked up by ShortButSweet’s dad to head home. It was a balmy, “Indian Summer” kind of evening and I made G&Ts – which were… strong. I had an awesome day exploring and, for sure, I want to become a Senator and live here and drink a ton of iced coffee and wear nice skirts and shoes and do whatever a Senator does.
Friday 27th June 2014
17.08
This afternoon ShortButSweet and I went to Potomac Mills mall. We had a long lunch outside in the warm with a mojito, and did some shopping in the World’s Biggest Mall (actually, I don’t think it is, but it’s mahoosive). I got some sweet new things and a new pair of sunglasses, which I will try to keep intact for the rest of summer.
Early morning million-mile walk in DC
12 Weeks a Maeve 