limo party, moar spots

I had the most awesome weekend ever! One highlight (of many) was during the limo party Sat. night. (This involved renting a limo, getting dressed up, then driving around DC drinking, listening to music, and stopping to take pictures at monuments, and also McDonalds). We pull up to the capital in our Hummer limo (we didn't want a Hummer, but there was a screw up so we just embraced the tacky). The tea party people had been protesting earlier, some of them were still around, and all their signs were in the trash can. So we took their signs, edited them (ripped the "no" off of "No Obamacare" for example), and posed for our picture. There were people speaking outside the Supreme Court (had to go for all the lawyers in our group), but we decided to keep our drunken obnoxiousness to ourselves. The secret service/park police/whichever authority figure was nice enough to let us take the picture.

I paid for my awesome weekend by having the most miserable night ever. Went to bed around 2am and could not sleep for the itching. The benadryl had no effect. Got up several times to try all my anti itch lotions, and even used an ice pack for a while (didn't help). Gave up at 5:30am, took an oatmeal bath (only helped a little), and watched tv until I could nap for a couple hours around noon. So now I'm itchy, exhausted, slightly nauseous (from being overtired), frustrated, and overall yucky feeling. The spots have spread to my forearms and calves. Some of the early ones on my chest are fading, but new ones are still appearing on my breasts. At least there isn't much more of my body it can spread to? (It shouldn't go to my face, and hands and feet would be unusual.) I just want it to stop itching (or respond to something other than drinking which isn't a viable daily option) so I can sleep. What a sad end to a tremendous three days.

Treme, paraolympic pics

Look, a new show by David Simon is coming! Called Treme, it's not The Wire, but looks like it's worth checking out.

THE STORY LINES IN “Treme” begin three months after Katrina, and they follow a diverse group of characters as they rebuild their lives in a city torn apart, a city in which tens of thousands of houses are abandoned, in which only 50 percent of the population remains, in which neighborhoods are still without power. The main characters in “Treme” aren’t the overburdened cops, spiraling addicts, ruthless dealers, struggling dockworkers, corrupt politicians or compromised journalists of “The Wire.” In their place, for the most part, are musicians, as the show’s title sneakily suggests: “Treme” (pronounced trih-MAY) is the New Orleans neighborhood where jazz was born. And even though it adjoins the French Quarter, few tourists visit Treme, where generations of the city’s musicians have lived.

Full article here.

Some fantastic pictures from the 2010 Winter Paraolympics. Wheelchair curling FTW!