We pondered what time she would have to get up to get ready, on the train, and back to the Con. Ctr. for her session, and ended up leaving K's long after that time. But got there with plenty to spare. It seems the Metro has extra trains running during peak hours, so they come by more often, and we some how made up the time spent lolly-gagging getting ready to leave the house.
Got off at the Con. Ctr. stop and asked the Answer Man where to find some breakfast. Wandered out into the streets and found a little deli, with sidewalk tables where we had a bit to eat. I had a bagel with gobs of cream cheese. Something I would have a huge chunk of guilt eating if at home - but it was so yum. Went back to the Con. Ctr. (actually named for a man who was William E. Washington -so calling it the Washington Convention Center is really appropriate.)
P. met up with the other three people she was to present the session with, and they had a little time hash out the details of who goes where, and how their different parts would mesh together. I was amazed at how smoothly all the pieces fit as they did their parts. Though they had not met prior to the gathering here in DC, I am sure there has been any number of emails and calls between them to discuss the sequence of the different segments they had prepared - it appeared to be seamless when it came from the four different individuals.
That P. is so smart and capable. I knew that, and have been so pleased to be related to her, proud of her accomplishments, skills and abilities. But to see her in action, taking charge, appearing so confident and unflappable, able to adapt to less-that-ideal circumstances and still look cool, calm and collected: wow!
Her cohort from the office in Chattanooga had some knowledge of the area, from having been employed with a non-profit in VA some years ago. So she was the one who suggested we go to a very nice sit-down restaurant to celebrate the Big Sigh of Relief they all felt when their session was successfully wrapped up. So the six of us trotted off down Seventh Ave. to Clydes' and lunched. Did I have a beer? Yes I think I did. And later mentioned that I had had more beer, consumed greater quantities of alcohol in the preceding
twenty-four hours than in the past twenty-four days. Have I possibly been lead astray? Hmmmm....
With the afternoon free, and some comfy shoes in my backpack, we trekked through Museums. I got to see most of the stuff I missed the previous day when returning to the American Art and Portrait Gallery... some beautiful historic stuff, and some that I could not honestly call 'art', but no one asked my opinion before they purchased and hung it on the walls. Some were more of what the experts call 'installations', three dimensional things that would take up a whole room, or videos that filled a wall - so I guess I need to expand my definition of 'art' and catch up with these modern times?
Then on to the Natural History Museum, where we viewed the requisite enormous whale in Under the Sea exhibit, huge elephant in the rotunda, still standing there for over fifty years. And the Hope Diamond, along with a gazillion other gem stones and minerals. Plus hundreds of skeletons of various mammals from pocket mouse, to extinct creatures of the dino. era. Then took a stroll through the Sculpture Garden - cool, peaceful, shady. A really strange sculpture of a huge tree made of shiny chrome.
.We went to a conference sponsored reception in the building that was years ago, a Carnegie Library, and is now apparently, available for rentals as an event center. So had finger foods for our evening meal, and consumed a bit more alcohol. I would like to plead my case as having been lead astray, with that glass of wine. I am not really a wine drinker, but had to make an exception, since it was free to anyone who had an invite to the reception - which I somehow did, even though I have been a party crasher since I left Georgia.
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