Gonzai Gallery

It was DC Horde meetup day in Alexandria, so I saddled up and drove to Virginia. Easier said than done. They're doing 1812 stuff in Baltimore, so had to go around the long way to avoid traffic/etc in the city. Get to DC and discover oopsie! I never checked on the Nats' schedule. They're home. Day game. Crawl through the city. Found the park in Alexandria just fine, found the people, we picniced, we rambled, we petted dogs and fed ducks, we played Cards Against Humanity. I have been deemed sick and twisted (and also useful, as only I thought to bring paper towels to a picnic.) The ride back - over two freakin' hours. First I gave Carlos the Dwarf a ride back to the Metro, except not only was traffic bumper to bumper, we couldn't figure out how to get into the station. Then I tried to find a place nearby to get a cold drink, but when I left the store to return to I-95...the ramp to 95 is closed. The closing forced me back into downtown, where I wandered in gridlock before (almost accidentally) finding my way back to 95. Hooray! Not so fast, sucker. There was an accident on the Beltway just in front of the ramp. I was stuck there for a while. Finally freed and back on the highway until...BW Parkway, packed solid. At dinnertime Saturday. Uh, why? The one good thing was I listened to 3.5 CDs that have been sitting in my car for months because I never seem to get past the radio. But sheesh, 4+hours in the car today. I'm not used to that.

That's all it takes. And Baltimore drivers freak out. It took me an hour twenty to make a 20 minute drive, and the only reason I got home at all is because I was westbound. The eastbound road was shut down for an accident. Because of a freakin' flurry. Idiots.

I got serenaded at work (poor Sky was scared) and I also got a chocolate cake and a crysanthemum turkey. Don't ask. My nephews just called and serenaded me as well, presumably the cat was afraid. But honestly, I've spent half the day sitting in traffic. Rainy traffic. Ah, what a day.

Not just the drivers today either. Besides having to follow a car with 4 smokers in it for 2 miles *cough cough*, I also observed a crashed school bus blocking an intersection, and an accident at an intersection where one of the same cars (and presumably the same driver) nearly hit me a few weeks ago because she was too busy texting to obey a stop sign (or my horn...) But the topper came from someone who wasn't in a car. The panhandlers at an intersection near my office are many and determined, but today they were displaced by a church group running around with buckets begging for cash. I don't give anything to anyone begging on the street, so I ignored the woman shaking the bucket by my window. She then went and stood in front of my car shaking her bucket while the rest of traffic starting moving for the green light. Plenty o'horns from me and most of the other cars, but she was bound she was going to get money out of me. Finally I yelled at her that if she wanted to meet Jesus that badly, I might just oblige her, and the guy behind me heard that and yelled that he wouldn't see a thing. She finally got out of the road, yelling at me the whole way for 'not acknowledging God'. Un-be-freaking-lievable.

The guys showed up to work on the house half an hour early, so I was nowhere near ready. CJ & I had to rush through our morning routine, then I had to leave for work half an hour early so they could get into the driveway. Despite the early start, I arrived at work...on time. The traffic was horrendous, and I took the back way. I hate to think how the main route was. At the office, Verizon was already there installing a new phone system. Whether home or work, there's people working on stuff. No peace. Yay.