Happy Valentine's Weekend To Me!

I am back in Charleston after a whirlwind trip to D.C. for three busy days.

I was on the phone with my Mom on Friday telling her about my day and she said that my trip was the perfect Valentine's to myself.  If you know me IRL (in real life), you know my pure love and passion for D.C., politics, and government.

As soon as I stepped out of the taxi at Union Station, I felt as though I had never left.  I was smart enough to take my old Metro card with me, and it still had some money on it! Win!  All weekend, I played "mother hen" to two guys that go to law school with me.  If it had not been for me, these guys would have been  lost and late for everything.

Once we got settled in at the Omni, we headed up the street to the convention hotel.  We got there just in time to hear THE guest speaker of the afternoon.  The one and only Donald Trump.  He all but said that he would be seeking the Republican Presidential nomination in 2012.  Thoughts? Ehhh...yeah he might be able to rebuild our struggling economy, but I don't see him as the diplomatic type.

via

Thursday night, I met one of my closest friends from college for dinner and drinks.  Christa and I were Chi-Os together and lived in the sorority house our Sophomore year.  She works for NatGeo.  It was so good to see her and catch-up.  She has offered me her couch for the summer if I get an internship in D.C.  We had dinner in Adams Morgan at Bourbon.  This restaurant was established just for me!  I LOVE bourbon.  I tend to shy away from all other liquors for various reasons, but bourbon and I have special connection.  I ordered the Method tasting flight.  I wish I had pictures, but Christa and I were, too, caught up in the conversation that I forgot to take pictures.

Sammi, Christa, and I

Sammi was a Chi-O, too.  She joined us after having dinner with her boyfriend.
Following dinner and a couple of drinks, the two guys with me meet us at Millie & Al's for a karaoke session.  The friendly folks of D.C. got a taste of my karaoke abilities.  Hope they were impressed!

Christa and I

The next morning, I headed over to the Hill for what was suppose to be a quick stop by Congressman Joe Wilson's office.  I interned for the Congressman the summer after I graduated from high school at his local office in Beaufort, SC.  His Chief-of-Staff is a close family friend, who I wanted to see while I was in town.  When I got there Eric had to take some people over to actual Capital building, so I got hang out with the Congressman for a little while.  After chatting for a bit, he asked me to join him on his way to CPAC and sit in on his speech for the morning. Yes, please!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.  We listened to a couple more speeches.  Walked around to the different organizational booths.  For the most part, many of these political conventions/conferences are student org fairs on crack.  I picked up ten new pens, three calendars, two reusable grocery bags, two figurine stress balls, a luggage tag, and entered upwards of 25 different drawings for an iPad.  My inbox is about to be flooded with emails from organizations I have little to no interest in learning more about, but I figured I needed to give myself a good chance at winning....so why not enter everyone I saw.

My favorite swag item of the weekend. Capital shaped stress ball.

We had a late flight on Saturday, so we had most of the day to either hit up the conference or do a little sightseeing.  After reviewing the schedule and nothing striking our fancy, we decided to walk the National Mall and see all the "D.C. stuff."

We stopped by the National Museum of American History.

Woodstock '69

Piece of the Berlin Wall

Overall, it was a great trip!  It definitely reaffirmed the fact that I want to live there.  Though I know when it comes down to it, I will miss Charleston and South Carolina.  D.C. just feels right and I can see myself living there for a couple of years.

Are there any cities you would love to live in? (realistic or not)

Here comes another week, lovelies!

Soulfully,

Ashton