The Visible Woman...January 3, 2004

This trip is really mostly about this one day and it is packed. I worry that I'll get tired, but I don't.

Before the frenetic activity begins we have a brief workout. I'm amazed that we are using the gym in the hotel, but we do. When you travel, it is hard to exercise. Especially on a day with a schedule like this one.

The package includes a continental breakfast in our room and we eat some of that while getting ready.

Then...we are off. We get dropped off and then get in a line in alphabetical order and get to go through the White House. Those rooms of color, some other rooms and artifacts in hallways are on display. I have never been there and it is fun. No West Wing visit, though.

FFP and I decide to take the only break of the day in our room. We get sandwiches and sushi from Dean and Deluca around the corner and kick back and eat and rest. We will need our strength.

We dress up and go to the Kennedy Center where we have great seats for the shortened-for-kids one hour version of Taming of the Shrew. The Washington Post will pan it (calling the Willy Shakespeare version playing elsewhere in the center "the real thing." Huh?). The ballet is great, the kids around us enthralled and the Austin-biased crowd loves it.

After the ballet we ride shuttle buses to the Watergate. Could have walked except for the construction. In a hotel ballroom or two, there are bars, tables and a dance floor. The Austin Convention Center and Visitor's bureau is throwing a bash for convention planners with ballet tickets and a party. We eat, drink and dance to Ray Benson's Asleep at the Wheel.

When the party winds down, we board a tour bus for a 'Monuments at Night' tour. We see a lot of stuff from the bus windows and then get out and walk the FDR memorial and later the Lincoln, Korean War and Vietnam War. Things look strange and eerie at night. Someday I'll have to see these monuments during the day.

My feet (in dancing shoes) are a little tired at the end of this but I really feel pretty good. And we spend another hour or more over drinks in the lobby, talking to people about ballet, wine and travel.

	jam-packed excitement This trip is really mostly about this one day and it is packed. I worry that I'll get tired, but I don't. Before the frenetic activity begins we have a brief workout. I'm amazed that we are using the gym in the hotel, but we do. When you travel, it is hard to exercise. Especially on a day with a schedule like this one. The package includes a continental breakfast in our room and we eat some of that while getting ready. Then...we are off. We get dropped off and then get in a line in alphabetical order and get to go through the White House. Those rooms of color, some other rooms and artifacts in hallways are on display. I have never been there and it is fun. No West Wing visit, though. FFP and I decide to take the only break of the day in our room. We get sandwiches and sushi from Dean and Deluca around the corner and kick back and eat and rest. We will need our strength. We dress up and go to the Kennedy Center where we have great seats for the shortened-for-kids one hour version of Taming of the Shrew. The Washington Post will pan it (calling the Willy Shakespeare version playing elsewhere in the center "the real thing." Huh?). The ballet is great, the kids around us enthralled and the Austin-biased crowd loves it. After the ballet we ride shuttle buses to the Watergate. Could have walked except for the construction. In a hotel ballroom or two, there are bars, tables and a dance floor. The Austin Convention Center and Visitor's bureau is throwing a bash for convention planners with ballet tickets and a party. We eat, drink and dance to Ray Benson's Asleep at the Wheel. When the party winds down, we board a tour bus for a 'Monuments at Night' tour. We see a lot of stuff from the bus windows and then get out and walk the FDR memorial and later the Lincoln, Korean War and Vietnam War. Things look strange and eerie at night. Someday I'll have to see these monuments during the day. My feet (in dancing shoes) are a little tired at the end of this but I really feel pretty good. And we spend another hour or more over drinks in the lobby, talking to people about ballet, wine and travel.
FFP just needed a hat to complete this tableau of a soup line at the FDR memorial
JUST TYPING Touring. You want to see things. But it makes for a full day. Especially if you dance.
		Food Diary. *breakfast* croissant, butter, jam, fruit several cups black coffee lunch [Dean and Deluca] mozzarella cheese and tomato sandwich potato chips tuna sushi (six pieces) can of unsweetened green tea *snacks* spring rolls and fried calamari a chocolate and some champagne dinner [Watergate Hotel] a chicken fajita with guac and cheese and salsa a glass of champagne two Jack Daniels one Grand Marnier on the rocks Today I - definitely drank too much.
Meta: I'm running a little behind. It's Wednesday morning and I'm working on this Saturday entry. It's hard to stay fresh at this when I get behind but when I do get behind I get compulsive to catch up.		Time flies.... My 'essay' was a pretty good recount of where the day went.

		Reading. Dawn of D-Day: There Men Were There 6 June 1944 by David Howarth Michelin Green Guide to Washington, D.C.; The Best American Essays 2003 edited by Anne Fadiman. Newspapers. Always fun to look at out-of-town newspapers.
		Yeah, right.
		Exercise about thirty-five minutes on the recumbent bike and some lunges
	. .	Mood was good and pretty relaxed.
	It's a Tangled Web we weave...these days of our lives.	One year ago "I have also tested my centerpiece skills, putting together a little test thing with some yellow roses, old CDs and copper cowboy hat and boot." Two years ago "They gradually straggle in, saying that it isn't appropriate in New York to be absolutely on time.... Inexplicably, the cab driver had his stockinged foot propped on the dashboard."