Got home at 1am on Wednesday morning...less than 48 hours later, I'm back in DC.
Tomorrow I'll spend the day at NSF, evaluating proposals for funding. Home again tomorrow night. I am not cut out for this kind of life.
To make matters worse, I seem to be sharing a hotel floor with dozens of teenagers, here on some kind of school trip. Happily, I'm at the end of the hall, far form the elevator and the vending machines. Perhaps I'll get a little sleep. Perhaps not. Good thing I brought that cough syrup with codeine.
On a side note, traveling to DC requires one to be bombarded with scary messages. In Pittsburgh, an armed guard checked IDs at the door to the plane, and the captain announced that we would not be able to stand up at all during flight, since by the time we finished our take-off, we'd be 30 minutes from DC, and we'd be required to stay in our seats for that 30 minutes.
On the Metro in from the airport (aside: What was I thinking? It would have been well worth the $10 for the cab to avoid the lengthy wait for trains...), there were several announcements telling passengers to "help avoid what happened in Madrid--if you see a bag on the floor, kindly ask others around you if belongs to them; if not, report it immediately to transit police."
Makes me glad I live in a relatively obscure city these days.
Welcome to DC. I noticed that the ratio of schoolchildren had suddenly jumped the past few days - apparently a lot of school trips this week.
Speaking as someone who works for a different agency that similarly relies on panelists to review grant applications, I can tell you that your willingness to do so is greatly appreciated.
Hope you have a few minutes to enjoy the city...
Didn't know you were in town. (Of course Ely and I were in Silver Springs for his operation at Walter Reed on Monday).
But next time you are in DC, look us up! stay at our home in Stafford. you're family!