Signs of Life

Nate:

So we have now been married a little over two months, and things are going very well. Learning to live your life with someone else isn't easy, but when you figure it out, it's highly rewarding. There's that stupid cliche of how getting married is "giving up your identity," or some such nonsense. It's simply not true. I have learned a lot about myself, and it's not all been terrific, but it's exciting to see yourself through another person's eyes, and to learn more about each other through common experiences. For her part, Hope is very patient and gracious with me. No doubt I can be quite a handful if given the right opportunity.

We have been working with the college students at Kansas City First Church now for a couple weeks, and its exciting to find a place of ministry for us, beyond just being in the play. (We mentioned the play, didn't we?) We are still kind of running around not knowing what we're doing, but thankfully we have some great kids in the class, and we are both so excited about what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of the kids of First Church.

Said play is going very well. Rehearsals have been highly efficient, which is impressive, since we have only had one a week for the longest time. Our director is very good at teaching blocking and so forth, and it feels like we are taking to the play much quicker than I usually see. It's exciting, and we are looking forward to performances.

Hope:

I'm not sure that we did mention the play.  FYI, it's a Woody Allen, "Don't Drink the Water."  That's that.

About our lives, we love being married.  Our apartment is starting to seem like our very own.  We even have pictures up in most of our new frames.  We were so blessed to get mondo gifts.  Some of them are still filling our guest closet.  Speaking of guest closet...that's in our guest room.  Our guest room has been used several times.  Our friend, Beth has stayed over a few times.  Heather got to use it while she was here for 2 weeks.  And, most recently, my big sister, Kendi, from Kenya stopped over with her friend, Kat.  Kendi is doing graduate work in Toronto and Kat lives in Vermont, so they were making their way across the states from Wyoming to Vermont.  It was such a great surprise that they got to come and hang out for a bit.  Kendi even brought me a dress that her mom had made for me.  It fits perfectly.  I'm wearing it tomorrow to the Cultural Festival in KCMO.  That'll be fun.

Um, right now I'm going to talk to Beth because, speaking of staying over she's doing that tonight.  So, that's all for now.

:o) H

Three weeks

Nate:

Well, after three weeks of marriage, I still love it. Our apartment is slowly getting unpacked, something that has been hampered by the crazy schedule we find ourselves in. I am always a little surprised when I find myself this busy. It sneaks up on me all the time; I just keep adding things until I realize that I'm swamped, and now I'm dragging Hope along with me on that. Oh well, it'll taper off eventually. Until it does, our house might maintain a slight level of clutter, but it's going well right now.

We'll be headed to Mount Vernon this week for the fourth, and I am positively giddy with excitement. I haven't been there since Christmas, and the fact that we will be driving there gets me even more excited, since I love road tripping. We'll hit the road on Wednesday afternoon. Can't wait.

It's true that after a long break from blogging, it's hard to think of anything else to say. I'll hand it off to Hope, and she can fill you in on some details.

Hope

Nate forgot to mention that not only does his still love being married, he still loves me...and I, him. :o) We're pretty good at being married! If you need any tips, just as us.

This week we got our new Kansas driver's licenses and plates. It was a very fine experience. The people were so helpful. One snafu: we got lost on the way to getting our KS "inspection." They had a nice, little directions sheet. It was very precise. Only one left and one right. How could we go wrong? She told us it was only about 2 miles away, so we had high hopes. The first direction said "Take a left onto Lamar." We took a left out of the parking lot and before we realized that we weren't "on Lamar" we didn't know where we were. It took us about 10 minutes to get our barrings, but found the inspection location and got back to the plates place in short order. One thing to know is that if you are getting a driver's license in Kansas, you won't really get the piece of plastic for a few weeks. We went away with a receipt that had our license information and picture on it as proof of our ability to drive legally. So, let's hope there aren't any strong gusts of wind when we're showing off our licenses. :o)

At the moment, that's all I gots. Keep enjoying your summer!

The Last Hurrah

Hope:
Today we stopped in several tourist shops to look at their magnets. I like to at least take a souvenir magnet if nothing else. I do believe one of them was right. It said, "I walked my feet off in D.C." Nate and I have both managed at least one blister each. The streets know our feets now. Oh, just as a side note, I did get an "I 'heart' DC" shirt from a street vendor. We also found the right Washington D.C. magnet and a neat coffee table book.

This morning was our White House tour at 8:30. Imagine the time backward with me. We were supposed to be there 15 minutes early, so that means we had to give 10 minutes walking from the metro to the visitor's center, which puts us at 8:05. It takes an hour to get into the heart of D.C. from our hotel, so we needed to be at the metro at 7:00, the shuttle doesn't start running until 7:15, so we were already a bit nervous that we wouldn't make the tour. Mid-way through our train ride, our train stopped and stayed at a location with the message that there was a fire on the Red line a few stops away. They would keep us posted. We got to go one more stop and were detained again with more messages regarding what little they did know about the fire and the walking inspections that were being done on the rails. The fire caused an electrical shortage which even effected the traffic lights up top. At several stations there was no power. We finally did get off, with no injuries. We were ready to relinquish our tour since we were running so late, but we stopped and asked anyway. At 9:15, with our explanation of the fire/power snafu, they let us in!

The tour was very surreal. There was no real instruction. The guards just kept letting us past certain check points and said keep going. We finally asked a guard if there were any guidelines we needed to know and he said that we just needed to stay within the ropes and that it was a self guided tour. Within 23 minutes, we were out. We didn't get to go upstairs or into either of the wings to see the offices. But, it was very, very neat. We were pretty tickled that we were just walking around in the president's house. Neat!

We went to the Library of Congress next and wandered around the stately halls of books and beautiful quotes. Some high points were the Gutenberg Bible and the Bob Hope Vaudevillian room. Neat stuff!

We had some lunch and then made our way back to the Madison building of the Library. That's where researchers get their library card. I went in and told the lady I wanted a library card and she asked why. I told her, "Because I want a library card." She pointed at a notice that they don't typically give these cards to tourists. I added quickly that, "I also want to research the fine arts and media." She knowingly waved me on and let me through with a friendly role of her eyes. I guess I'm just too cute for my own good. I went through the little survey and got my picture taken and now I am a member of the Library of Congress!!! Nate chose not to go through this neat/sneaky ordeal.

One of the coolest things I partook of this day was at the Hirshorn Museum. This piece of media art, "The Way Things Go" is 30 minutes long and video records a series of Mousetrap-like events. There is a snippit of the chain reaction art below from YouTube. I really enoyed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U82eWptFxSs

Alrighty. I'll let Nate talk at you.

Nate:

Well, we have finally come to it: the last full day of our honeymoon. I must say, I have had an absolute blast. I love being married. I understand that the honeymoon is hardly "real life" but it is so great to wake up to Hope every morning. I ALSO love Washington D.C. Would I want to live here? Mercy, no. The traffic is dreadful, and the general feel of the city makes it more interesting to visit than live in, I imagine. However, there is so much to do, and it is generally 1) free and 2) easy to get to. It's been a really exciting week.

Today was nice, because we didn't have to compete with herds of adolescents to see everything. All of our main stops were comparatively easy-going. I absolutely loved The White House. The tour was too short, but I liked that it was self-guided, and it is indeed a very elegant place. I have no doubt it is daunting for a new president to walk in for the first time, under the gaze of all the portraits that line the halls. How can someone fill the shoes that have been previously filled by Lincoln, Washington, and the Roosevelts? How can someone look on the pictures of Ford and Andrew Johnson and not compare yourself to their forgettable tenures? It would be a very big thing indeed. It was kind of like going through a short art gallery, quiet and dignified. I enjoyed it very much, and if you are willing to cut through the red tape to get there, its worth the time. The whole areas we saw looked like a palace. I find it fascinating that America was founded with so much emphasis that the Presidency was NOT a throne, and yet we felt compelled to gussy up the house the president lives in. It kind of makes it bigger then any one man.

The Library of Congress was neat for its amazing architecture. The place looks closer to Versailles then anything else in the city. There are gilded ceilings, vaulted way into the air with stained glass at the top. Murals and names of famous authors line the walls. It was really beautiful, and had that same feeling of very great age that I got with the Capitol. The Bob Hope exhibit was a welcome thing for me. I am very fascinated by the history of American entertainment, and since the American History Museum is closed for renovation, I hadn't gotten to see the stuff I really wanted in that regard. I am also a sucker for vaudeville, and it really focused on that part of his career. Hope's library card escapade was fun too, although don't tell the librarians it was for a souvenir. We'll probably have a fine attached to our taxes next year.

I liked the Hirshhorn Museum as well. It was again more laid-back than other Smithsonian museums, and had a very slick trendy arty look that made it easy to follow. It's a smaller museum as well, containing two circular floors of art and a sculpture garden. There were many fascinating pieces, and we both enjoyed it a lot.

We have had a blast here in DC. I hope you folks enjoyed reading about it. Don't get used to it, because we're about to dive back into the minutia of married life. Riveting!

Great Lengths

Hope:
Today was a feat of great lengths. We encountered several and I shall share them with you now.

Our first great length was when we got off the stop at Woodley Heights/National Zoo. We ascended the escalators to get back to the earth's crust. However, that set of stairs was not the only one as is normally the case. We exited the turnstiles and rounded the corner to find the most enormous set of escalator stairs we've ever seen. They serously looked like the were ascending into the heavens. They were so long. We estimate that there were more than 50 and less than 75 yards of stairs taking us back up to civilization. We were glad that they were moving because we probably wouldn't have made it in good time otherwise.

We then headed to the National Zoo. Nate and I had a great time miandering in and out of animal houses, walking through mist-ers, and taking in the sights. The zoo was crawling more with adolescents than with animals, so we were pleased to find our way to a less trafficed area of the park. It's too bad for the other patrons who did not find this cove, becuase the Amizonica site was a favorite of both of ours. We saw stingrays with the neatest designs on their backs and an at least 9 foot under acquarium's fiew of some pretty cool fish. One of the specimens brings us to our next example of a great length. We estimate this fish to be something like 5 feet long. It was not beautiful by most means, but impressive none the less. We were awed by its length!

The last great length does not seem as noteworthy as I am typing it, but it was part of the construction of this blog in my head earlier. I was constructing it whilst waiting...for one of the greatest lenghts of the day. When I say the length of time in a bit, it will seem minute, but let me assure you that it was by no means the case when I was (we were) endouring it. Nate and I called for a shuttle to pick us up at the Metro at 4:00. They said it would be there in 10-15 minutes. So, we headed over to the stop and waited...with the sun blazing down. I felt like an ant under a microscope. We were practically melting. 15 minutes came and went, still sweltering. Nate did a good job of trying to keep my mind off of it by asking me what I thought and hoped we got in our wedding gifts. It was a valient effort, but I was still getting crankier by the minute. Thomas finally showed at 33 minutes in and all is well now, but it was not a nice half hour of my life.

*Disclaimer* Yesterday Nate noted to me that it was funny that I would scoff at a diamond the size of an Oreo. When you put in in that perspective it does seem a bit brash. However, in my perspective, it's not. My perspective was relative to the size of a trash can lid on a poster. Doesn't that seem minute...an Oreo vs. a trash can lid? So, there. ;o) Thanks for reading.

Nate:

Yeah, I don't have a whole bunch to add. The zoo was neat, but it was basically just a zoo. Strange fact: the National Zoo is downhill as you go further in, and so its a real pain to actually get out once you have seen your share of animals being boring. Seriously though, it was a good time. It was not the sort of zoo that will change the world (nowhere near as good as Colombus, for example), but it was certainly capable, and benefited from a lot of lush greenery. A nice way to spend a few hours, definitely.

This afternoon we got cleaned up and took the hotel shuttle to a little local walking mall that is around there; I believe its called the Washingtonian Waterfront. It wasn't half bad either. We ate at a sandwich place called Potbelly. It was decent (they had a really good hot pepper relish that may have been just a little too hot for me), but it certainly wasn't the best sandwich in DC, as the sign boasted. They didn't have much in the way of variety (your basic turkey/ham/italian selection), and what we got was fine in terms of portion, but seemed a little overpriced compared with other sandwich places I've been to. We milled around for a while before coming back to the hotel. We stopped by a Lindt store that was really cool. Did you know you can buy chile-flavored chocolate from Lindt? Well, you can.

Tomorrow we go to the White House. After that we are somewhat undecided, although our activities will likely include the Library of Congress.

As a personal note, one of my fondest memories of DC was that there was a giant bronze dinosaur in front of the Natural History Museum. You can imagine my dismay when I found yesterday that it had been moved, apparently recently. That's why it was cool today to walk through the zoo and see my old buddy the bronze triceratops (evidently named "Uncle Beasley") sitting in a little enclave along the main walk. We used our last picture on our disposable camera for a shot of me and my buddy. Good times.

The Hope Diamond, Dinosaurs, and nail polish remover

Hope:
Today's highlights: The Hope Diamond, Dinosaurs, and nail polish remover!!!

This morning we skipped breakfast with the intention of finding a neat brunch location in the city. We ended up with a hot dog meal outside of the National Museum of Natural History. Twas quite delightful. Before our hot dog brunch we walked our way to the Washington Monument. I think Nate will like telling you about one of the peculiarities we found out about that monument earlier this week.

Our biggest goals for the Natural History Museum were to see the dinosaurs for Nate and the Hope Diamond, of course, for me. The diamond was quite unimpressive. I'm all about expectations and they do a good job of promoting the bling outside of the museum by using huge, poster-sized likenesses to peek your interest. When you get in and find it is no bigger than an Oreo, it leaves much to be desired. It was basically lame, but I was glad to see it nonetheless. One sparkle of interest that I had was dashed at the gift shop. We found the coolest shirt with the word "Hope" in diamonds on the top. The "o" was taken place by the big, blue diamond. We both decided I needed to get one and at $18, I thought that was a reasonable bargain for such a nifty find. I found the XL and sadly found that it would have fit me better when I was 8, rather than almost 28. Sad day. I did get a picture with it, but it's just not the same.

We also took in an IMAX presentation, "Dinosaurs: The Giants of Patagonia." It was in 3D. Rad! Need I say more? Maybe Nate will.

My last wonder of the day was that I finally found some nail polish remover and cotton balls at an unlikely spot. My lovely French tip nail job has been chipping since the wedding day. The White Out-touch-up job has since been wearing off and worsening daily. I reached my breaking point, as it were, and set out to remove the job once and for all. That lacquer that they put on the top is hard to remove. But, alas, it is now all gone. Yeah for Bed, Bath, and Beyond. They really are beyond!

Nate:

We were both highly appreciative of the slower pace today. We have been running pretty hard, and it usually means that we run out of gas by about 5:00 or so. This isn't usually a big deal, since we typically stay in for the night to unwind, but regardless, today was much more low-key.

The Washington Monument is, without a doubt, the least interesting monument we have seen thus far. It looks really iconic, and craning your neck to look at the top is pretty cool, but really, short of going to the top, it's a big spire in the middle of a park. Funny story: the monument was actually left incomplete for about 20 years after funding ran out. Just after the Civil War, it was completed, with stone from the same quarry. However, that stone was now coming from deeper in the earth, and it was a slightly different color. The result is that the Washington Monument is two-tone. Basically, the symbol of one of our greatest Americans ever has a farmer's tan.

The Natural History Museum was neat, but as with yesterday, we hit critical mass about two hours in. It was very exciting to see dinosaur skeletons, even though some of the dinosaur exhibits are very out of date, and look like they came from the mid-70's. How could I tell? The T-rexes in the dioramas were all walking upright, with their tales dragging on the ground. Palentologists now believe that the Tyrannosaurus walked with the tail as balance, and the legs as a pivot point. I would think that the Smithsonian would change this to reflect it, but money is probably tight.

Surprisingly interesting was the gemstone exhibit, which was amazing in its variety. I was really impressed by the sheer number of variations that crystals can adopt, and they were all really cool. The IMAX movie was also really neat, as Hope mentioned. My biggest beef was that it was short and surface. I personally could have done for something closer to an hour, as opposed to 22 minutes. That may just be me though.

Hope neglected to say that we also saw the Hirschhorn Sculpture Garden, which is across the mall from the Natural History Museum. It was nice, and since the weather was much more pleasant today (about 15 degrees cooler than yesterday), the stroll was nice. We also took the Metro up towards the National Portrait Gallery, and spent a gift-card someone gave us to Chipotle. This was right on the edge of Chinatown, so it was kind of strange to see all the signs with Chinese on them. Still, a good day.

Tomorrow will likely contain the National Zoo, although that is subject to change. We left it open so that we could play it by ear. Good night, all.

I lost my husand!

Hope:
This morning started out a bit wobbly, but turned out fabulously. We had a nice, hearty, hot, continental breakfast. Then, set out to take D.C. The first mishap was when the hotel shuttle was not available for our immediate usage. We'd called to reserve a transportation time of 8:30. However, when we went to check in on the status of the van at 8:20, they said it wouldn't be back until 9:10! That wouldn't work. We had to be at the Capitol at 10:00 and as we timed it out yesterday, it would take at least 1 hour on the Metro. So, the other option was to have them call us a taxi.

This ride, we found, was a first for both of us. Neither Nate, nor I, had ever ridden in an American taxi before. Neat, right? The fare for the 1.5 mile ride was a mere $8. With all of the wedding cards we got, that's nothin'. We're practically made of money!!! (j/k)

We found our way to the Metro and got on the Red line in no time. It was our first time to have to transfer lines today, so we had it all mapped out in our heads as to how it would go. It's a good thing that we both had it in our heads because, as I was stepping onto the Orange line to make our transfer, I no sooner got smacked in the shoulder with the sliding door and had just enough time to turn around and see my new husband disappear as the doors were closed between us and the train started moving. As thoughts started to form in my head about what the next step would be, I looked around at the few around me and uttered helplessly, "That's my new husband...." Not to fear. We did continue on our journey separately and reunited at the designated South Capitol stop. *sigh* All is well.

I'll let Nate continue from here about the rest of the day's events.

Nate:
My first time away from my new wife was trying, but she has a good head on her; we met at the appointed place without incident. Our first stop today was the Capitol building. It was fascinating to me at least. In the US, you so rarely see a truly OLD building, and here we were in a building that was crawling with history. Seeing the Supreme Court room where Roger Taney sent down the Dred Scott decision was kind of sobering, and then it was intense to be in the room where the British set fire to the Capitol in 1814. The wildest thing was the rotunda, which was positively vertigo-inducing in its heighth. We also had the privelage to see the House and Senate in session. The House was pretty dead, but the Senate was in the middle of some vote or other, and we got to see LOADS of famous politicians, including John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, George Voinovich (from Ohio), Claire McKaskell (from Missouri), Alren Specter, Pat Morrison (from Kansas), and several others. It was exceptionally exciting to see the democratic process in action, even if it mostly consisted of old men walking to a front desk and gesturing to the recording secretary.

For lunch, we went to the Museum of the American Indian, which is maybe a block from the Capitol. We had been told on our tour yesterday of a snack bar there that served American Indian food, and we thought that would be good for an experience. It was pricey; the American Indians may not have had a concept of ownership, but we certainly do. Still, I got to try buffalo (in the form of a pulled buffalo sandwich). Hope had various vegetarian dishes, which she enjoyed. She also got some drink that was some kind of pumpkin-ish strawberry spiced concoction, which, upon much deliberation, was gosh-awful.

The National Air and Space Museum was our afternoon stop, and it was indeed very cool. I personally was the one a little more interested in this museum, so we ended up going towards the space section, as was my desire. It was pretty cool to see Skylab, rest our feet under Apollo-Soyuz, and see the Apollo 11 re-entry pod. I have determined that I am an absolute sucker for the space race, and everything it entailed. The world of space exploration just hasn't been the same since we stopped going to the moon. We also made it into the section with airplanes, where we saw the Wright Bros. plane and The Spirit of St. Louis. It was all very fascinating, but you know how museums are; after about two hours, you hit a certain overload, and you just kind of see the rest of the place in a haze. That definitely happened for us, but it was a really neat experience to see, and I am so impressed with the Smithsonian already. Sometime I will have to come to DC just for the museums. Maybe I'll have some kid who is as much of a nerd as I am...

Also, I should mention that we got astronaut ice cream. Hope has had it along the way somewhere, but it was the first time for me, and I was shocked to find that it did, in fact, taste JUST like ice cream. I had anticipated something that was horribly fake, but it was apparently legit. Oh sure, it was in a little brick that had the consistency of a fresh Lucky Charms marshmallow, but the taste of ice cream was in spades, albeit in a crunchy warm form. Still, try it sometime.

Tomorrow: The Washington Monument and the Museum of Natural History! BE THERE! (Not really. Let us be on our honeymoon, people!)

190 Degrees in the Shade

Nate:
First of all, for those wondering, married life is wonderful. It is great to wake up next to Hope, and to have her RIGHT THERE, as opposed to a half-hour drive away. We got into our hotel at about 11:15 last night, and after some sleep we were ready to tackle our nation's capital. If you are following the news, you know that Washington D.C. is officially the hottest place ever. The heat index today was hovering around 110, and if you ever got out in the sun, it felt like it. The good news was that it was MUCH more tolerable in the shade, and that there was a fairly steady (albeit warm) breeze blowing through the city. We got on a trolley tour that allowed us to take in most of the major monuments. For example, we tackled the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials today. I personally find this sort of thing very powerful, and it was impossible for me not to be moved while reading Lincoln's speeches engraved in the walls. We also took in the Vietnam Memorial, and were treated to the unbelievably tacky sight of someone taking a goofy picture next to one of the statues. We'll hit some more later on (like the Washington monument) but we had our fill of walking today. We wore sunblock, stayed in the shade when we could, and drank lots of water. It was a good first day. As a side note, the DC Metro is nice, but the commute is longer than I had anticipated. It took us about 45 minutes to get to Union station, and we are allowing ourselves an hour tomorrow to get through rush hour to the Capitol for our tour.

Hope:
Yo. Nate and I are pretty much on the same page. I enjoyed the water and the Screwball (icecream) that Nate gave me. My only complaint aside from the heat is that I got a small blister on the top of my rigth foot. There was something in the back of my mind telling me I shouldn't wear my cute, white sandles, but I couldn't pin it down. Now, I remember, they rub when I walk a lot. Tonight we ordered in some Chinese (food, not people). Then, Nate's going to teach me how to play our new game, Jambo. Yes, we couldn't resist bringing 2 of our new games. Hehe. They're both 2-player...perfect for 2 love birds. That's all for now. Love you all. Laters.