Monday Numbers

• On Friday, we learned the Thriller dance in a class that was 1.5 hours long. The dance was really fun to try, but it's so hard to remember the different parts and to make your body move in a certain way. Even so, I had a blast! We even got 2 of our friends to joins us. At the last minute, I decided to dress like a newsboy, while Alex was a mountaineer. Random? I know.
• We got up super early to head down to Washington, DC on the Chinatown Bus. The drive took nearly 4 hours, so we got to DC a little bit before the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear started. We headed to the mall with thousands upon thousands of people. Shockingly, everyone was quite civil and well behaved. We did witness one Segway group tour trying to head through the mall. That might have been a bad idea. Other than that, we saw lots of signs, many people in costumes, and had a great time. Mostly, it was awesome to see so many people out, asking for some temperance and sanity in the fear-mongering that the media gets away with. Some of my favorite signs: "I may disagree with you, but I don't think you're Hitler", "Free Hugs from a left wing liberal with a gay agenda", "All the words on this sign are spelled correctly", "Trust women", "The only thing to fear is Fox News". Most of the signs were funny or catchy, most were reasonable, some were silly or dumb. The people at the rally were quite polite, saying "Excuse me" to get past you, and trying not to bump into people. Most people cleaned up after themselves, such that, after the rally, the trash cans were full and the trash was piled neatly around the cans, not everywhere else. 
• We hit 2 museums and 2 fast food joints while in DC. We checked out the Air & Space Museum, which is always a great time. And we checked out the National Portrait Gallery, which was super cool. We saw the original Obama "Hope" poster, and all the interesting portraits of the Presidents of the United States. Some things I learned at the National Portrait Gallery? Walt Whitman was gay. A display of pictures and writings by artists who are gay requires a sign in the room warning patrons that this art display explores ideas of sexuality. Odd. There was a president named Andrew Johnson, who became president after Lincoln was assassinated. While the room with writings and artifacts about gay people (but no nudity) required warning about "gay themes", the room next to the Hall of Presidents, which contained, nudity, pictures of same sex couples kissing, or engaging in vague sex acts, or pictures of people who are dying or have died of AIDS required no "warning". You just walked seamlessly from pictures of the Bushes and Reagan to pictures of naked men. The disparity was bizarre since, (methinks) its the "act" of being gay that really bothers people, not the words and letters from gay artists. Oh well, both displays were still really cool.
• Our trip back to Philly was much shorter (2.5 hrs) since the traffic had thinned considerably. We sat in front of a group of college kids who talked incessantly for the last hour of the bus ride back. There were two boys who sang showtunes, and then discussed awkwardly how one of them liked somebody and what to do about it. It made me nostalgic for those days of college, but glad that I am where I am. When we got into Philly, we bought one bottle of Gatorade and one bottle of water and waited about 6 minutes for our bus home. Long day!
• Alex visited two different stores in order to find Halloween candy yesterday. Apparently, there was a candy shortage in Philly because it was nowhere. He finally found three bags of candy and came home. We got about 12 trick or treaters last night.
• I did about 6 loads of laundry yesterday, along with making one pork roast in the slow cooker and baking one loaf of banana bread. Sometimes, it's really lovely to be home on a Sunday and not have to work.