D.C.: Day One

Saturday, February 12, 2011

After a late night of teaching violin lessons, finding substitutes for callings, and packing bags, Jaron and I found ourselves in the suburban of his classmate’s father at 5am. He was kind enough to take us, his son and his son’s girlfriend, and another friend of Jaron’s (Josh) to the airport 25 miles away. The man’s son and son’s girl fried (Aaron and Abbie) were going to be our roommates for the four-night stay in WA D.C. I was rather hesitant about this for a number of reasons, but $250 a night and Jaron’s reassurance of their character sealed the deal. I was so thankful Aaron greeted me with some sarcastic, but kind, remark. He and I had good banter the rest of the trip. And his girlfriend was the most down-to-earth girl I met the whole time. We lucked out.

We met up with a larger group of Logan students after checking in. Security was pretty dead, but I was the lucky random scan of the morning. My first radio-active, full-body scan; I’ve had nightmares about this situation since I first heard of the new “security” measures. Oh well. Thankfully I skipped out on the pat-down. That might have ended my trip short right then. Now I just have to live with the fact that the TSA knows my boob size.

We slept on the plane after trying to do homework. Aunt Amy picked us up.

The Welsh’s home is way closer to the airport than I thought. This, too, I was a bit apprehensive about, as I’ve never had to interact with this family on my own—as an adult(ish). But all went well and we had a good time. Amy took us back to their home to meet up with Keith. He took Jaron, Rachel, and I out to lunch in Annapolis while Amy and the twins went to basketball practice. Annapolis was a much quainter city than I expected. It had a nice European-style walking street with lots of shops in old-looking buildings; a big bay filled with sailboats and yachts. I never knew that it was actually the first capitol of the U.S. before the Revolutionary War.

After lunch, our group met up with Amy and the twins and we all headed to D.C. to traipse around the monuments in the blustering cold.

They dropped us at our hotel around 5. It was just a few blocks from the White House. We settled there before attending the first NCLC (National Chiropractic Legislative Conference) meeting of the week. I thought I would be bored, but it was actually quite informative and inspiring. The speakers updated us on the latest plights against Chiropractic care, like a lawsuit going on in Texas charging chiropractors to make patients sign a “you might have a stroke if I adjust you” form before every visit. The defense attorney made a strong case explaining that though 1 in 4 million persons receiving chiropractic care may have a stroke caused by the adjustment, 1 in 1 million male infants die from the circumcision procedure. But, yet, no doctor has their patients’ parents sign a “your new baby might die from this procedure” form, though the odds are there. I found out it’s also more likely to have a stroke while getting your hair done than while at the chiropractor. (I guess that position of leaning your head backwards increases your body’s ability to stroke if there’s one in waiting to strike). Speakers also focused on the importance of a patient-oriented practice and the benefits of ethical work.

Afterwards, we found out SACA leaders (Student American Chiropractors Association) had planned parties for everybody for every night! The first one was at a club. Now, I’ve always wanted to go clubbing for real, but they don’t exist in Idaho, but at this particular night, I was not thrilled about the prospect due to the fact that I brought NOTHING to wear clubbing…I brought suits for the meetings and a sweatshirt for touring…We went anyway. And it was actually a lot of fun. I think it was only fun because we had a good group to go with (four of whom chose not to get totally sloshed in the first half hour), and we left before things got disgusting. Otherwise it would have been a little awkward. It was also an educational experience: I learned that wine breath smells way worse than beer breath and that both make me want to vomit; don’t take anything that anyone offers you at a club because it’s really loud and others are drunk and don’t understand the words “I don’t drink”; And the bouncers were really nice to people who weren’t being stupid. Oh, and apparently the DJ was flown in from Paris for this event. I had no idea who he was. But we got a good look at him in case he gets more famous.

After we left, Jaron and I walked to the White House and got a good night look at it, but we forgot the camera. I was surprised at how close you could get to it from the back. And that was the end of the first, long day.