Sunday, July 21, 2024
By:
There’s a classic piece that flautists often play called “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Mind you, I have never been able to play it up to speed because I only play the flute casually, but if it doesn’t invoke anxiety, I don’t know what will. Maybe that’s just me projecting because the thought of playing it scares me half to death. I’m getting sidetracked…The reason I bring this up is because the last week has felt exactly like that song. The frantic rush to finish the song, but in a way that shows the rush is tasteful.
As we all know, the internship is sadly coming to an end :( . And with that, I must transfer all my research knowledge from my brain onto paper so that I am not the only one who holds the secrets of the universe. As a result, I’ve probably written, deleted, and revised over 6,000 words in the past week, and I am nowhere near finished. As a result, this blog post (unless I start rambling which is entirely likely) will be on the shorter side.
Beyond writing, Charlotte and Jenna very kindly organized a tour of NIST on Thursday which was extremely interesting, and where I finally met Brad Conrad and Sarah Ipri-Brown (a fellow Princetonian!). We also saw ‘Newton’s Apple Tree,’ the 1-million-pound weight, and a forensics lab.
Did I tell myself I would spend this weekend writing? Yes. Did I? No, much to my detriment. However, I had fun, and I forced Sonja and Collins on my adventures (much to their chagrin), so all was not lost. Let’s just say what I said would be a 1.5 hour outing doubled in time, but we saw Ford’s Theater… and all the places of Lincoln’s assassination… Moving on! Sunday, I got up bright and early and met some college friends at Great Falls Park where we hiked the Billy Goat Trail (which was more of a 3-mile rock scramble so be prepared if you do it). Of course, since I was out and about, I decided that I just HAD to go exploring (definitely not to avoid doing my work), so I drove to Occoquan which was a cute little town. There, I got some looseleaf tea and treated myself to a lobster roll and chai latte. I then realized I was only 20 minutes from Mount Vernon, so I explored that. The dramatic irony of this, looking back, was that as soon as I arrived at the birthplace of good ol’ GW himself, Biden announced he would no longer be running for a second term. After, again, treating myself to the gift shop (I need an intervention), I returned home where I discovered the greatness of Costco rotisserie chicken and where Maia made yummy chocolate chips.
The End!
Recommended Activities: Ben’s Chili Bowl, Jeni’s Ice Creams, Ford’s Theater, the Billy Goat Trail, Leaf & Petal and the Ballywack Shack in Occoquan, Mount Vernon
Kai Hostetter-Habib