Washington, D.C.

I just tried to post a huge commentary on my day yesterday in D.C. with Hannah and something happened that made that post disappear and now I'm pissed. So, here's the extremely shortened version.

We went to Vera Wang and tried on wedding dresses just for fun. I tried on three, one of which was nearly $9,000.

We went to the WWII memorial. Two words: absolutely beautiful.

We went to the National Museum of American History where they had a phenomenal exhibit on the history of Brown v. Board of Education. I was frightened at the sight of the KKK robe they had on display and felt oppressed by this empty costume and invisible eyes of malice that stared at me through small eye slits behind the glass pannel. I cried at the video showing riots and actions taken against the black community as they tried to integrate the schools. I cannot believe they would do that to children - innocent, young people who only wanted to be accepted as human beings! A man walked past me at one point and commented to his female companion that he didn't "see what the big deal was." I read recently that my generation is growing increasingly ambivalent to race and is actually more racist on the whole than our parent's generation because we don't think critically about race since we haven't had to deal with the implications of racism like they did. I find it disgusting that we can't live easily with people different from us unless they're struggling just to be heard because otherwise we don't listen and find it so easy to walk away. They had a book there called One Drop of Blood: The American Misadventure of Race that I want to read next semester when I have time off from school.

So back to the trip...We then met her friend Brian who is totally cool and had dinner at a tapas restaurant. Then we drove home. No traffic the entire day, either, which was not only nice but remarkable and relatively unheard of. By the time we arrived at the grad plex, though, we were both having trouble keeping our eyes open. Overall, a wonderful day!